Controller in a Camera for Creating a Panoramic Image

ABSTRACT

Methods and apparatus to create and display panoramic images on a mobile device are disclosed. Such a mobile device can be a mobile phone. Apparatus is provided to control the position of a lens in relation to a reference lens. Methods and apparatus are provided to generate multiple images that are combined into a panoramic image. A panoramic image may be a static image. It may also be a video image. A controller provides correct camera settings for different conditions. An image processor creates a panoramic image from the correct settings provided by the controller. A panoramic camera is applied in a computer gaming system.

STATEMENT OF RELATED CASES

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional PatentApplication Ser. No. 61/106,025, filed Oct. 16, 2008, and of U.S.Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/106,768, filed Oct. 20, 2008,which are both incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to digital image devices. Morespecifically, it relates to a controller device in a digital camera, thecamera being enabled by the controller to record at least two images andgenerate a single, optimally registered panoramic image from those atleast two images.

Digital cameras are increasingly popular. The same applies to cameraphones. The digital images taken by these devices use a digital sensorand a memory which can store data generated by the sensor. Data mayrepresent a still image. Data may also represent a video image. Imagesmay be viewed on the device. Images may also be transferred to anexternal device, either for viewing, for storage or for furtherprocessing.

Panoramic images are also very popular and have been created from thetime of photographic film to the present day of digital imaging. A wholerange of tools exists to combine two or more images from a scene into asingle, combined, hopefully seamless panoramic image. This process ofcombining is called registering, stitching or mosaicing. An advantage ofa panoramic image is to provide a view of a scene that is usually beyondwhat is usually possible with a common camera and having no or verylittle distortion.

The process of picture taking for creating a panoramic image is aprocess that has many different technologies, apparatus and methods.Very common is the method of taking a first picture with a single lenscamera, followed by taking at least a second picture at a later time,and followed by stitching the pictures together. This method is not veryuser friendly or requires complex cameras or complex camera settings.Furthermore, this method may be troublesome for creating video images.

Cameras with multiple lenses are also known. These cameras should beeasier to use. However, current implementations still require users toprovide fairly involved manual settings.

Accordingly, novel and improved methods and apparatus are required forcreating, recording, storing and playing of panoramic images.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

One aspect of the present invention presents novel methods and systemsfor recording, processing storing and concurrent displaying of aplurality of images which may be video programs into a panoramic image.

In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, an apparatus isprovided for generating a combined image from at least a first and asecond image of a scene with a camera having at least a first lens beingassociated with a first image sensor for generating the first image anda second lens being associated with a second image sensor for generatingthe second image, comprising a memory, enabled to store and provide datarelated to a first setting of the second lens, the first setting of thesecond lens being associated with data related to a first setting of thefirst lens, a controller, applying data related to the first setting ofthe first lens for retrieving from the memory data related to the firstsetting of the second lens, the controller using the retrieved data fordriving a mechanism related to the second lens to place the second lensin the first setting of the second lens.

In accordance with a further aspect of the present invention, anapparatus is provided, further comprising the memory having stored datadefining a first area of the second image sensor which is associatedwith the first setting of the first lens, and the memory having storeddata defining a first area of the first image sensor which is associatedwith the first setting of the first lens.

In accordance with yet a further aspect of the present invention, anapparatus is provided, further comprising a display which displays thecombined image which is formed by merging of image data from the firstarea of the first image sensor and image data of the first area of thesecond image sensor.

In accordance with yet a further aspect of the present invention, anapparatus is provided, further comprising, the first area of the firstimage sensor being determined by a merge line; and a display whichdisplays the combined image which is formed by merging of image datafrom the first area of the first image sensor and image data of thefirst area of the second image sensor along the merge line.

In accordance with yet a further aspect of the present invention, anapparatus is provided, wherein the data defining a first area of thesecond image sensor determines what image data stored in an image memoryis read for further processing.

In accordance with yet a further aspect of the present invention, anapparatus is provided, wherein a setting of the second lens is one ormore of the group consisting of focus, diaphragm, shutter speed, zoomand position related to the first lens.

In accordance with yet a further aspect of the present invention, anapparatus is provided, further comprising at least a third lens beingassociated with a third image sensor.

In accordance with yet a further aspect of the present invention, anapparatus is provided, wherein the first lens and second lens are partof a mobile phone.

In accordance with yet a further aspect of the present invention, anapparatus is provided, wherein the image is a video image.

In accordance with yet a further aspect of the present invention, anapparatus is provided, wherein the camera is part of a computer gamingsystem.

In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a method isprovided for creating a stitched panoramic image from at least a firstand a second image of a scene with a camera having at least a first lensbeing associated with a first image sensor for generating the firstimage and a second lens being associated with a second image sensor forgenerating the second image, comprising setting the first lens in afirst focus setting on the scene, associating a first focus setting ofthe second lens with the first focus setting of the first lens, storingdata related to the first focus setting of the second lens in a memory,determining an alignment parameter related to an alignment of an area ofthe first image sensor with an area of the second image sensor,associating the alignment parameter with the first focus setting of thefirst lens, and storing the alignment parameter in the memory.

In accordance with yet another aspect of the present invention, a methodis provided, further comprising placing the first lens in the firstfocus setting, retrieving from the memory data of a focus setting of thesecond lens by applying the first setting of the first lens, and drivinga mechanism of the second lens under control of a controller to placethe second lens in a position using the retrieved data of the focussetting of the second lens.

In accordance with yet another aspect of the present invention, a methodis provided, further comprising retrieving from the memory the alignmentparameter related to the focus setting of the first lens, and generatingthe stitched panoramic image by processing image data generated by thefirst image sensor and the second image sensor in accordance with thealignment parameter related to the focus setting of the first lens.

In accordance with yet another aspect of the present invention, a methodis provided, wherein the camera is part of a mobile computing device.

In accordance with a further aspect of the present invention, acontroller is provided for generating a stitched panoramic image from atleast two images of a scene with a camera having at least a first and asecond lens and a first and a second image sensor, comprising a memory,enabled to store and retrieve data related to a setting of a first lens,a processor, enabled to retrieve data from the memory and the processorexecuting instructions for performing the steps of retrieving from thememory data determining a first setting of the second lens based on afirst setting of the first lens, and instructing a mechanism related tothe second lens to place the second lens in a setting determined by theretrieved data related to the first setting of the first lens.

In accordance with yet a further aspect of the present invention, acontroller is provided, further comprising instructions to perform thesteps of retrieving from the memory data defining an area of the firstimage sensor and data defining an area of the second image sensorrelated to the first setting of the first lens, and instructing an imageprocessor to process image data of the area of the first image sensorand of the area of the second image sensor to create the stitchedpanoramic image.

In accordance with yet a further aspect of the present invention, acontroller is provided, wherein a setting of a lens of the cameraincludes at least one of a group consisting of focus, aperture, exposuretime, position and zoom.

In accordance with yet a further aspect of the present invention, acontroller is provided, wherein the camera comprises a display fordisplaying the stitched panoramic image.

In accordance with yet a further aspect of the present invention, acontroller is provided, wherein the camera is part of a gaming system.

In accordance with yet a further aspect of the present invention, acontroller is provided, wherein the gaming system segments the stitchedpanoramic image from a background.

In accordance with yet a further aspect of the present invention, acontroller is provided, wherein the image processor is enabled to blendimage data based on the alignment parameter.

In accordance with an aspect of the present invention a camera isprovided, comprising a first and a second imaging unit, each unitincluding a lens and a sensor, a portable body, the sensors of the firstand second imaging unit being rotationally aligned in the portable bodywith a misalignment angle that is determined during a calibration, and acontroller for applying data generated during the calibrationdetermining an active sensor area of the sensor of the first imagingunit and an active area of the sensor of the second imaging unit togenerate a registered panoramic image.

In accordance with a further aspect of the present invention, theprovided camera further comprises a display for displaying theregistered panoramic image.

In accordance with yet a further aspect of the present invention thecamera is provided, wherein a pixel density of the sensor in the firstunit is greater than the pixel density of the display.

In accordance with yet a further aspect of the present invention thecamera is provided, wherein the registered panoramic image is a videoimage.

In accordance with yet a further aspect of the present invention thecamera is provided, wherein the misalignment angle is negligible andwherein image data associated with pixels on a horizontal line of thesensor of the first unit is combined with image data associated withpixels on a horizontal line of the sensor of the second unit to generatea horizontal line of pixels in the registered panoramic image.

In accordance with yet a further aspect of the present invention thecamera is provided, wherein the misalignment angle is about or smallerthan 5 degrees.

In accordance with yet a further aspect of the present invention thecamera is provided, wherein the misalignment angle is about or smallerthan 1 degree.

In accordance with yet a further aspect of the present invention thecamera is provided, wherein the misalignment angle is about or smallerthan 0.5 degree.

In accordance with yet a further aspect of the present invention thecamera is provided, wherein the misalignment angle is about or smallerthan 1 arcmin.

In accordance with yet a further aspect of the present invention thecamera is provided, wherein the misalignment angle is applied todetermine a scanline angle for the sensor of the second imaging unit.

In accordance with yet a further aspect of the present invention thecamera is provided, wherein the misalignment error is applied togenerate an address transformation to store image data of the activesensor area of the sensor of the second imaging unit in a rectangularaddressing scheme.

In accordance with yet a further aspect of the present invention thecamera is provided, wherein the camera is comprised in a mobilecomputing device.

In accordance with yet a further aspect of the present invention thecamera is provided, wherein the camera is comprised in a mobile phone.

In accordance with yet a further aspect of the present invention thecamera is provided, further comprising at least a third unit including alens and a sensor.

In accordance with yet a further aspect of the present invention thecamera is provided, wherein the lens of the first unit has a fixed focallength.

In accordance with yet a further aspect of the present invention thecamera is provided, wherein the lens of the first unit has a variablefocal length.

In accordance with yet a further aspect of the present invention thecamera is provided, wherein the lens of the first unit is a zoom lens.

In accordance with yet a further aspect of the present invention thecamera is provided, further comprising a mechanism that can reduce themisalignment angle to negligible.

In accordance with another aspect of the present invention a camera isprovided, comprising a first and a second imaging unit, each imagingunit including a lens and a sensor; and a controller for applying datagenerated during a calibration determining an active sensor area of thesensor of the first imaging unit and an active area of the sensor of thesecond imaging unit to generate a registered panoramic image duringoperation of the camera.

In accordance with yet another aspect of the present invention thecamera is provided, wherein the camera is part of a mobile phone.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a diagram of a camera for panoramic images in accordance withan aspect of the present invention;

FIG. 2 illustrates a panoramic image created in accordance with anaspect of the present invention;

FIG. 3 illustrates a panoramic image created in accordance with anotheraspect of the present invention;

FIG. 4 illustrates a panoramic image created in accordance with yetanother aspect of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a diagram of a camera for panoramic images in accordance withan aspect of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a diagram of a camera for panoramic images in accordance withanother aspect of the present invention;

FIG. 7 illustrates a panoramic image created in accordance with afurther aspect of the present invention;

FIG. 8 illustrates a panoramic image created in accordance with yet afurther aspect of the present invention;

FIG. 9 illustrates a panoramic image created in accordance with yet afurther aspect of the present invention;

FIG. 10 is a diagram of a camera for panoramic images in accordance withanother aspect of the present invention;

FIG. 11 is a diagram of a camera for panoramic images in accordance withyet another aspect of the present invention;

FIG. 12 is a diagram of a camera for panoramic images in accordance withyet another aspect of the present invention;

FIG. 13 is a diagram of a camera for panoramic images in accordance withyet another aspect of the present invention;

FIG. 14 is a diagram of a camera for panoramic images in accordance withyet another aspect of the present invention;

FIG. 15 is a diagram of a camera for panoramic images in accordance withyet another aspect of the present invention;

FIG. 16 illustrates a panoramic image created in accordance with afurther aspect of the present invention;

FIG. 17 illustrates a panoramic image created in accordance with yet afurther aspect of the present invention;

FIG. 18 is a diagram of a camera for panoramic images in accordance withyet another aspect of the present invention;

FIG. 19 is a diagram of a camera for panoramic images in accordance withyet another aspect of the present invention;

FIG. 20 is a diagram of a sensor/lens unit with moving mechanisms;

FIG. 21 is a diagram of another sensor/lens unit with moving mechanisms;

FIG. 22 illustrates the storing of image data generated by two sensors;

FIGS. 23-24 illustrate the capturing of images by two sensors;

FIG. 25 illustrates two images captured by two sensors;

FIGS. 26-28 illustrate image distortion;

FIGS. 29-34 illustrate image displays in accordance with one or moreaspects of the present invention;

FIG. 35 is a diagram of a system in accordance with an aspect of thepresent invention;

FIG. 36 illustrates resizing of an image in accordance with an aspect ofthe present invention;

FIGS. 37-40 illustrate scanlines related to a sensor;

FIG. 41 is a diagram for a transformational addressing system for imagedata in accordance with an aspect of the present invention;

FIG. 42 is a diagram of an embodiment of alignment of lens/sensor unitsin accordance with an aspect of the present invention;

FIG. 43 is a diagram of an micro drive mechanism; and

FIG. 44 is a diagram of an alignment system in accordance with an aspectof the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

In a first embodiment of the present invention, a camera is a digitalcamera with at least 2 lenses and each lens being associated with animage sensor, which may for instance be a CCD image sensor. It may alsobe a CMOS image sensor, or any other image sensor that can record andprovide a digital image. An image sensor has individual pixel elementsensors which generate electrical signals. The electrical signals canform an image. The image can be stored in a memory. An image stored in amemory has individual pixels, which may be processed by an imageprocessor. An image recorded by a digital camera may be displayed on adisplay in the camera body. An image may also be provided as a signal tothe external world, for further processing, storage or display. An imagemay be a single still image. An image may also be a series of images orframes, forming a video image when encoded and later decoded anddisplayed in appropriate form.

In one embodiment, to create a panoramic image a camera has at least twolenses, each lens being associated with an image sensor. This is shownin FIG. 1 in view 100 and 150. As an illustrative example a camera 100has three lenses 101, 102 and 103. Each lens is associated with an imagesensor. Accordingly, 101, 102 and 103 may also be interpreted as asensor unit, which is an embodiment having a lens and an image sensor,the image sensor being able to provide image data or image signals to animage processor 111, which may store image data, which may have beenprocessed, in a memory 114. The image generated by 111 may be displayedon a display 112. The image may also be provided on a camera output 104.In a further embodiment, image data as generated through a lens by asensor may be stored in an individual memory, to be processed in a laterstage.

The panoramic digital camera of FIG. 1 has, as an illustrative example,one central sensor unit with lens 102. Associated with this sensor unitis an autofocus sensor system 108. Autofocus systems for cameras arewell known. The autofocus sensor system 108 senses the distance to anobject that is recorded by sensor unit 102. It provides a signal to amotor or mechanism 106 that puts the lens of 102 in the correct focusposition for the measured distance. In accordance with an aspect of thepresent invention, data that represents a position of the lens of 102 isstored in memory 110 and is associated with a signal or data generatedby a measurement conducted by autofocus unit 108.

FIG. 1 provides two diagram views of the illustrative embodiment of apanoramic camera. View 100 is a top view. View 150 is a front view. Itis to be understood that FIG. 1 only provides an illustrative example.Other configurations, with different orientation of lenses, differentnumber of lenses, different autofocus units (for instance “through thelens”), different aspect ratios of the camera bodies, different vieweroptions in addition or in place of a display, control buttons, externalconnectors, covers, positioning of displays, shape of the body, amulti-part body wherein one part has the display and another part hasthe lenses, etc are all contemplated.

The autofocus system including sensor and mechanism may also include adriver or controller. Such drivers and controllers are known and will beassumed to be present, even if they are not mentioned. Autofocus may beone aspect of a lens/sensor setting. Other aspects may include settingsof diaphragm and/or shutter speed based on light conditions and onrequired depth of field. Sensors, mechanisms and controllers and ordrivers for such mechanisms are known and are assumed herein, even ifnot specifically mentioned.

A panoramic camera may be a self-contained and portable apparatus, withas its main or even only function to create and display panoramicimages. The panoramic camera may also be part of another device, such asa mobile computing device, a mobile phone, a PDA, a camera phone, or anyother device that can accommodate a panoramic camera.

Sensor units, motors, controller, memories and image processor asdisclosed herein are required to be connected in a proper way. Forinstance, a communication bus may run between all components, with eachcomponent having the appropriate hardware to have an interface to a bus.Direct connections are also possible. Connecting components such as acontroller to one or more actuators and memories is known. Connectionsare not drawn in the diagrams to limit complexity of the diagrams.However, all proper connections are contemplated and should be assumed.Certainly, when herein a connection is mentioned or one component beingaffected directly by another component is pointed out then such aconnection is assumed to exist.

In order to generate a panoramic image in this illustrative example,three sensor units are used, each unit having a lens and each lenshaving a motor to put the lens in the correct focus position. The lensof image sensing unit 101 has a motor 105 and image sensor unit 103 hasa motor 107. The motors may be piezoelectric motors, also called piezomotors. The field of view of the lens of unit 101 has an overlap withthe field of view with the lens of unit 102. The field-of-view of thelens of unit 103 has an overlap with the field of view of the lens ofunit 102. At least for the focus area wherein the field of view oflenses of 101, 102 and 103 have an overlap, the image processor 111 mayregister the three images and stitch or combine the registered images toone panoramic image.

The motors 105 and 107 may have limited degree of freedom, for instance,only movement to focus a lens. It may also include a zoom mechanism fora lens. It may also provide a lens to move along the body of the camera.It may also allow a lens to be rotated relative to the center lens.

Image registration or stitching or mosaicing, creating an integratedimage or almost perfectly integrated image from two or more images isknown. Image registration may include several steps including:

a. finding a region of overlap between two images which may includeidentifying corresponding landmarks in two images;

b. aligning two images in an optimally matching position;

c. transformation of pixels of at least one image to align correspondingpixels in two images; and

d. a blending or smoothing operation between two images that removes ordiminishes between two aligned images a transition edge created byintensity differences of pixels in a connecting transition area.

The above steps for registering images are known and are for instanceprovided in Zitova, Barbara and Flusser, Jan: “Image registrationmethods: a survey” in Image and Vision Computing 21 (2003) pages977-1000, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.Another overview of registering techniques is provided in ImageAlignment and Stitching: A Tutorial, by Richard Szeliski, TechnicalReport MSR-TR-2004-92, Microsoft, 2004, available on-line which isincorporated herein by reference.

The image processor may be enabled to perform several tasks related tocreating a panoramic image. It may be enabled to find the exact pointsof overlap of images. It may be enabled to stitch images. It may beenabled to adjust the seam between two stitched images by for instanceinterpolation. It may also be able to adjust intensity of pixels indifferent images to make stitched images having a seamless transition.

It is possible that the three image lens/sensor units are not optimallypositioned in relation to each other. For instance, the units may beshifted in a horizontal plane (pitch) in vertical direction. The sensorunits may also be rotated (roll) related to each other. The sensor unitsmay also show a horizontal shift (yaw) at different focus settings ofthe lenses. The image processor may be enabled to adjust images forthese distortions and correct them to create one optimized panoramicimage at a certain focus setting of the lens of unit 102.

At a certain nearby focus setting of the lenses it may no longer bepossible to create a panoramic image of acceptable quality. Forinstance, parallax effects due to spacing of the lens units may be acause. Also, the multiplier effect of lens and sensor systems (sizes) indigital cameras may limit the overlap in a sensor unit configuration asshown in FIG. 1. However, the configuration as shown in FIG. 1 is stillable to create quality panoramic images in a digital camera, forinstance in a camera phone. In a further embodiment of the presentinvention, the focus settings of the lenses of unit 101 and 103 bymotors 105 and 107 are coordinated with the focus setting of the lens ofunit 102 by motor 106 controlled by autofocus unit 108 by the controller109.

In a further embodiment, motors or mechanisms moving the actual positionof units 101 and 103 in relation to 103 may be used to achieve forinstance a maximum usable sensor area of aligned sensors. These motorsmay be used to minimize image overlap if too much image overlap exists,or to create a minimum overlap of images if not enough overlap exists,or to create overlap in the right and/or desirable areas of the imagesgenerated by the sensors. All motor positions may be related to areference lens position and focus and/or zoom factor setting of thereference lens. Motor or mechanism positions may be established andrecorded in a memory in the camera during one or more calibration steps.A controller may drive motors or mechanism in a desired position basedon data retrieved from the memory.

System Calibration

A coordination of sensor/lens units may be achieved in a calibrationstep. For instance, at one distance to an object the autofocus unitprovides a signal and/or data that creates a first focus setting bymotor 106 of the lens of 102, for instance, by using controller 109.This focus setting is stored in a memory 110. One may next focus thelens of unit 101 on the scene that contains the object on which the lensof 102 is now focused. One then determines the setting or instructionsto motor 105 that will put the lens of unit 101 in the correct focus.Instructions related to this setting are associated with the setting ofthe lens of 102 and are stored in the memory 110. The same step isapplied to the focus setting of the lens of unit 103 and the motor 107.Thus, when the sensor unit 108 creates a focus of the lens of 102,settings related to the lenses of 101 and 103 are retrieved from memoryby a controller 111 from memory 110. The controller 111 then instructsthe motors 105 and 107 to put the lenses of units 101 and 103 in thecorrect focus setting corresponding to a focus setting of the lens ofunit 101, in order for the image processor 111 to create an optimalpanoramic image from data provided by the image sensor units 101, 102and 103.

One then applies the above steps for other object distances, thuscreating a range of stored settings that coordinates the settings of thelenses of multiple sensor units. One may have a discrete number ofdistance settings stored in memory 110. One may provide an interpolationprogram that allows controller 109 to determine intermediate settingsfrom settings that are stored in memory 110.

One may store positions and settings as actual positions or as positionsto a reference setting. One may also code a setting into a code whichmay be stored and retrieved and which can be decoded using for instancea reference table. One may also establish a relationship between asetting of a reference lens and the setting of a related lens and have aprocessor determine that setting based on the setting of the referencelens.

In a further embodiment, one may combine focus setting with aperturesettings and/or shutter speed for different hyperfocal distancesettings. One may have different hyperfocal settings which may beselected by a user. If such a setting is selected for one lens, thecontroller 111 may apply these settings automatically to the otherlenses by using settings or instructions retrieved from memory 110. Acamera may automatically use the best hyperfocal setting, based onmeasured light intensity.

In general, camera users may prefer a point-and-click camera. This meansthat a user would like to apply as few manual settings as possible tocreate a picture or a video. The above configuration allows a user topoint a lens at an object or scene and have a camera controllerautomatically configure lens settings for panoramic image creation.

In general, image processing may be processor intensive. This may be ofsomewhat less importance for creating still images. Creation ofpanoramic video that can be viewed almost at the same time that imagesare recorded requires real-time image processing. With less powerfulprocessors it is not recommended to have software find for instancestitching areas, amount of yaw, pitch and roll, register images and soon. It would be helpful that the controller already knows what to do onwhat data, rather than having to search for it.

In a further embodiment of the present invention, instructions areprovided by the controller 109 to image processor 111, based on settingsof a lens, for instance on the setting of the center lens. Thesesettings may be established during one or more calibration steps. Forinstance, during a calibration step in applying a specific distance onemay apply predefined scenes, which may contain preset lines and marks.

Different configurations of a multi-lens/multi-sensor camera andmanufacturing processes for such a multi-lens/multi-sensor camera arepossible. One configuration may have motors to change lateral positionand/or rotational position of a sensor/lens unit in relation to the bodyof the camera. This may lead to a camera with a broader range ofcreating possible panoramic images. It may also alleviate requiredprocessing power for an image processor. The use of such motors may alsomake the tolerances less restrictive of positioning sensor/lens unitswith regard to each other. This may make the manufacturing process of acamera cheaper, though it may require more expensive components,including motors or moving mechanisms.

In a further embodiment, one may position the sensor/lens units inexactly a preferred fixed position of each other, so that no adjustmentsare required. Such a construction may put severe requirements on theaccuracy of manufacturing, thus making it relatively expensive.

In yet a further embodiment, one may allow some variation in rotationand translation in positioning the sensor/lens units, thus making themanufacturing process less restrictive and potentially cheaper. Anyvariation of positioning of sensors may be adjusted by the imageprocessors, which may be assisted by calibration steps. In general, overtime, signal processing by a processor may be cheaper than applyingadditional components such as motors, as cost of processing continues togo down.

A first calibration step for a first illustrative embodiment of a set of3 sensor units is described next. Herein, a set of three sensor/lensunits is considered to be one unit. It is manufactured in such a waythat three lenses and their sensors are aligned. The image created byeach sensor has sufficient overlap so that at a maximum object distanceand a defined minimum object distance a panoramic image can be created.A diagram is shown in FIGS. 2 and 3. In FIG. 2 a scene 200 provides aplurality of calibration points. One may relate images generated by thecamera of FIG. 1 to images shown in FIGS. 2, 3 and 4. The image recordedby sensor/lens 102 in FIG. 1 is shown as window 203 in FIG. 2. Thisimage will be used as the reference window in the examples. Otherreferences are also possible. As one views an image in mirror inrelation to the sensor/lens unit, the window 205 is related tosensor/lens 101. The window 201 is related to sensor/lens 103.

The sensor/lens units are aligned so that aligned and overlappingwindows are created. In FIG. 2 the windows and thus the sensors have norotation and/or translation in reference to each other. At a firstcalibration test it is determined that sensor areas 202, 204 and 206will create an optimal panoramic image at that distance. The settingbeing associated with a focus setting of the center sensor/lens unit102, and with this setting being associated focus settings of lenses of101 and 103 corresponding to the setting of 102, relevant settings beingstored in a memory 110 that can be accessed by a controller 109. It maybe that at this setting lens distortion is avoided or minimized byselecting image windows 202, 204 and 206 of the sensor area. One maydetermine the coordinates of each image area in a sensor and store thesecoordinates for instance also in memory 110. When the present focussetting is applied the image processor 111 is instructed by thecontroller 109 to only process the image within retrieved coordinates ofthe image sensor which are associated with the setting in memory 110.One may provide a certain margin to allow the image processor todetermine an optimal overlap with a very narrow margin. This limits theload on the processor and allows the image processor, based onpredetermined settings to quickly create a stitched panoramic image.

When windows 201, 203 and 205 related to the image sensors are alignedit may suffice to establish a merge line 210 and 211 between thewindows. In that case, one may instruct a processor to apply the imagedata of window/sensor 201 left of the merge line 210, use the image dataof window/sensor 203 between merge lines 210 and 211 and the image dataof window/sensor 205 to the right of merge line 211. One may save mergelines that are established during calibration as a setting. One mayprocess the data in different ways to establish a panoramic image. Onemay save the complete images and process these later according toestablished merge lines. One may also only save the image data inaccordance with the merge lines. One may for instance, save the data inaccordance with the merge line in a memory, so that one can read thedata as a registered image.

It is noted that one may provide the images for display on an externaldevice, or for viewing on a display that is part of the camera.Currently, image sensors may have over 2 Megapixels. That means that aregistered image may have well over 5 Megapixels. Displays in a cameraare fairly small and may be able to handle much smaller number ofpixels. In accordance with a further aspect of the present invention,the recorded images are downsampled for display on a display in acamera.

One may repeat the above calibration steps at a different distance. Itmay be that certain effects influence distortion and overlap. This isshown in FIG. 3 as sensor windows 301, 303 and 305. Again sensor 102 ofFIG. 1 may be the reference sensor. The effective overlap sensor areasfor creating a panoramic image at the second distance may be sensorareas 302, 304 and 306 which may be different from sensor areas in FIG.2. The coordinates of these sensor areas are again stored in a memoryfor instance 110 that is, for instance, accessible by the controllerrelated to a focus setting. The area parameters in operation may beretrieved from 110 by controller 109 as being associated with a focussetting and provided by the controller 109 to the image processor 111for creating a panoramic image from the sensor data based on the definedindividual images related to a focus setting. Instead of saving a sensorarea, one may also determine again a merge line that determines what theactive area of a sensor should be. As an example, merge lines 310 and311 are provided. It is noted that the merge lines are drawn as straightlines perpendicular to the base of a rectangular window. However, such alimitation is not required. First of all, a sensor does not need to berectangular, and the active window of a sensor is also not required tobe rectangular. Furthermore, a merge line may have any orientation andany curved shape.

One may repeat the steps for different distances and also for differentlighting and image depth conditions and record focus setting andaperture setting and shutter setting and related sensor area parametersand/or merge lines in a memory. Such a system allows a camera to providepoint-and-click capabilities for generating panoramic images from 2 ormore individual images using a camera with at least two sensor/lensunits.

In a further embodiment, one may be less accurate with the relativeposition of sensor/lens units in relation to the central unit. Forinstance, a sensor/lens 101 may have a vertical shift of translation toa reference unit 102 as is shown in FIG. 4. Herein, window 405 has alateral shift relative to window 403. Furthermore, sensor/lens 103 maybe rotated relative to 102. This is shown as a rotated window 401. Itshould be clear that a window may have a rotational deviation and avertical and horizontal deviation. These deviations may be corrected byan image processor. It is important that the sensor/lens units arepositioned so that sufficient overlap of images in effective sensorareas can be achieved, with minimal distortion. This is shown in FIG. 4.At a certain distance, related to a focus setting of the sensor/lens 102sensor areas 402, 404 and 406 are determined to be appropriate togenerate a panoramic image from these images. One may then again storethe coordinates of the effective sensor areas in a memory 110, relatedto a sensor/lens focus. These coordinates may be accessed by controller109 and provided to the image processor 111 for processing the images.The processor may apply these coordinates directly. In a furtherembodiment, one may store a transformed image in a buffer applyingrectangular axes.

In FIG. 4 to illustrate the aspect of sensor area coordinates isillustrated by identified points 409, 410, 411 and 412, which identifythe active sensor area to be used for the panoramic image. The rectangledetermined by corners 409, 410, 411, 412 is rotated inside the axes ofthe image sensor 103 related to window 401. One may provide the imageprocessor 109 with transformational instructions to create standardrectangular axes to refer to the pixels for processing. One may alsowrite the data related to the pixels into a memory buffer thatrepresents the pixels in standard rectangular axes. The coordinates alsoinclude the coordinates of the separation/merge line 407-408 betweenwindows 401 and 403. One may also provide the coordinates of theseparation line 415-416 between windows 403 and 405. The image processormay be instructed, for instance by the controller 109 which retrievesall the relevant coordinates from memory 110 based on a setting of areference lens, to combine the active sensor area image of 407, 408,410, 412 of sensor unit 103 with active sensor area 407, 408, 415, 416of sensor unit 102. One should keep in mind that the coordinates of line407-408 in sensor 102 may be different from the coordinates of line407-408 in sensor 103 if one does not use standardized buffered images.

In a further embodiment, one may start calibration on a far distancescene, thus assuring that one can at least create a far distance scenepanoramic image.

In yet a further embodiment, one may start calibration on a neardistance scene, thus assuring that one can at least create a neardistance scene panoramic image. In one embodiment, a near distance scenemay be a scene on a distance from about 3 feet. In another embodiment, anear distance scene may be a scene on a distance from about 5 feet. Inanother embodiment, a near distance scene may be a scene on a distancefrom about 7 feet.

Near distance panoramic images, may for instance be an image of aperson, for instance when the camera is turned so that 2 or more, or 3or more sensor/lens units are oriented in a vertical direction. Thisenables the unexpected results of taking a full body picture of aperson, who is standing no further than 3 feet, or no further than 5feet, or no further than 7 feet from the camera.

In illustrative embodiments provided herein sensor/lens units with threelenses are provided. The embodiments generally provided herein will alsoapply to cameras with two lenses. The embodiments will generally alsoapply to cameras with more than three lenses. For instance, with 4lenses, or to cameras with two rows of 3 lenses, or any configuration oflenses and/or sensor units that may use the methods that are disclosedherein. These embodiments are fully contemplated. FIG. 5 shows a diagramof an embodiment of a camera 500, which may be embodied in a cameraphone, being a mobile computing device such as a mobile phone with acamera. This diagram shows 6 lenses in two rows. One row with lenses501, 502 and 503, and a second row with lenses 504, 505 and 506. Thecamera also has at least an autofocus sensor 507 which will be able toassist a reference lens to focus. All lenses may be driven into focus bya focus mechanism that is controlled by a controller.

Motor Driven Calibration

In a further embodiment of a camera, one may provide a sensor/lens unitwith one or more motors or mechanism, the motors or mechanism not beingonly for distance focus. Such a mechanism may provide a sensor/lens unitwith the capability of for instance vertical (up and down) motion withregard to a reference sensor/lens unit. Such a motor may provide asensor/lens unit with the capability of for instance horizontal (leftand right) motion with regard to a reference sensor/lens unit. Such amotor may provide a sensor/lens unit with the capability of for instancerotational (clockwise and/or counterclockwise rotational motion) motionwith regard to a reference sensor/lens unit. Such an embodiment is shownin FIG. 6. Rotational motion may turn the turned sensor/lens unittowards or away from a reference lens. Rotational motion may also rotatea sensor plane on an axis perpendicular to the sensor plane.

The camera of FIG. 6 is shown in diagram as 600. The camera has again 3sensor/lens units as was shown in FIG. 1. These units are 601, 602 and603. Unit 602 may be considered to be the reference unit in thisexample. It has a autofocus unit 608 associated with it. Each lens canbe positioned in a correct focus position by a mechanism or a motor suchas a piezo-motor. The system may work in a similar way as shown inFIG. 1. The camera may be pointed at an object at a certain distance.Autofocus unit 608 helps lens of unit 602 focus. Data associated withthe distance is stored in a memory 610 that is accessible by acontroller 609. Associated with this setting are the related focussettings of lenses of 601 and 603. Thus, a setting of the lens of 602will be associated with a focus setting of 601 and 603 which will beretrieved from memory 610 by controller 609 to put the lenses of 601 and603 in the correct focus position. An image processor 611 will processthe images provided by sensor units 601, 602 and 603 into a panoramicimage, which may be displayed on display 612. The panoramic image may bestored in a memory 614. It may also be provided on an output 604.

The sensor unit 601 may be provided with a motor unit or a mechanism 605that is able to provide the sensor unit with a translation in a plane,for instance the sensor plane. The motor unit 605 may also have arotational motor that provides clockwise and counterclockwise rotationto the sensor unit in a plane that may be the plane of the sensor and/orthat may be in a plane not being in the sensor plane, so that the sensorunit 601 may be rotated, for instance, towards or away from unit 602.Sensor unit 603 has a similar motor unit or mechanism 606. Sensor unit602 is in this example a reference unit and has in this case no motorunit for translational and rotational movements; however, it has a focusmechanism. Each unit of course has a focus motor for each lens. Thesemotors are not shown in FIG. 6 but may be assumed and are shown in FIG.1.

The calibration steps with the camera as provided in diagram in FIG. 6work fairly similar to the above described method. One will start at acertain distance and lighting conditions and with unit 608 have a focussetting determined for 602 which will be associated with a focus settingfor units 601 and 603 and which will be stored in memory 610 to be usedby controller 609. Assume that the sensor units are not perfectlyaligned for creating an optimal panoramic image. The sensor unit 601,602 and 603 show the images of 702, 700 and 701. For illustrativepurposes, a space between the images is shown, the images thus having nooverlap. This situation of no overlap may not occur in real life if forinstance no zoom lenses are used. However, the method provided herein isable to address such a situation if it occurs and thus is shown.

As a next step the motor units 605 and 606 are instructed to align thewindows 701 and 702 with 700. This is shown in FIG. 8. Herein, windows801 and 802 created by the sensor units 603 and 601 which were adjustedin position by the motor units 606 and 605. It may be determined thatsensor areas 804 and 805 need to be combined or registered with area 803as shown in FIG. 8 to generate an optimal panoramic image by imageprocessor 611, which may require a lateral movement of units 601 and 603by mechanisms 605 and 606. Furthermore, it is determined that sensorareas 803, 804 and 805 provide the best panoramic image for the applieddistance in a stitched and registered situation. The motor units arethen instructed to put the sensor units 601 and 603 in the positionsthat provide the correct image overlap as shown in FIG. 9. This createsa panoramic image formed by image sensor areas 804, 803 and 805 touchingat position 901 and 902 as shown in FIG. 9 and forming panoramic image900. All motor instructions to achieve this setting are stored in memory610 where it is associated with a focus setting determined by unit 608.Furthermore, also stored in memory 610 are the coordinates of therespective sensor areas and the separation lines that will be retrievedby controller 609 and provided to image processor 611 to create anoptimal panoramic image. These coordinates are also associated with afocus setting. As an illustrative example of the coordinates 903, 904and 905 are shown as part of defining the active image sensor area ofwindow 801. By knowing the active sensor areas per sensor including theseparation lines, one may easily combine the different images into astitched or panoramic image. If required, one may define a search areawhich can be very narrow to optimize stitching and to correct for anyalignments inaccuracies by the image processor.

One can repeat the calibration setting for different distances. Theremay be a difference in field of view between images at differencedistances for instance due to the digital multiplier of a sensor unit.Also, parallax may contribute to a need to adjust angles of thesensor/lens units 601 and 603. Zoom settings, of course, will alsoaffect the field of view. It may be possible to align the sensor/lensunits in one plane in the manufacturing phase without adjusting therelative position of sensor/lens units. It may still be beneficial toadjust the relative settings of the sensor/lens units. In such a case,the motors or mechanisms may for instance only be rotational motors.

For instance, zoom motors may be required in case the lenses are zoomlenses. In that case, the field of view changes with a changing zoomfactor. Such a camera is shown in diagram in FIG. 10. The camera has thesame elements as the camera shown in FIG. 6, including a distance focusmotor for each lens that are not shown but are assumed. Furthermore, thecamera of FIG. 10 has a zoom mechanism 1001 for sensor/lens unit 601, azoom mechanism 1002 for sensor/lens unit 602, and a zoom mechanism 1003for sensor/lens unit 603. Calibration of the camera of FIG. 10 works ina similar way as described earlier, with the added step of creatingsettings for one or more zoom settings per distance settings. A zoommechanism may be controlled by a controller. A calibration step may workas follows: the lens of unit 602 is set in a particular zoom setting byzoom mechanism 1002. This zoom setting is stored in memory 610 and thelenses of units 601 and 603 are put in a corresponding zoom positionwith mechanisms 1001 and 1003. The instructions to units 1001 and 1003to put lenses of 601 and 603 in their corresponding zoom positions arestored in memory 610 and associated with the zoom position of 602affected by 1002. So, when the lens of 602 is zoomed into position,controller 609 automatically puts the lenses of 601 and 603 incorresponding positions by retrieving instructions from memory 610 andby instructing the motors of 1001 and 1003.

In a further embodiment, the mechanism of 1002 may contain a sensorwhich senses a zoom position. In such an embodiment, a user may zoommanually on an object thus causing the lenses of 601 and 603 also tozoom in a corresponding manner.

The combination of a distance with a zoom factor of unit 602, which isthe reference unit in this example, determines the required position,zoom and focus of the units 601 and 602. As above, all instructions toachieve these positions for 601 and 603 are associated with thecorresponding position of the reference unit 602 and stored in memory610 which is accessible to controller 609. Included in the storedinstructions may be the coordinates of the actively used sensor areas,which will be provided to image processor 611 to process the appropriatedata generated by the sensors into a stitched and panoramic image as wasprovided earlier above.

As a consequence of creating a panoramic image of several images one mayhave created an image of considerable pixel size. This may be beneficialif one wants to display the panoramic image on a very large display oron multiple displays. In general, if one displays the panoramic image ona common display, or for instance on the camera display such highresolution images are not required and the processor 611 may have anunnecessary workload, in relation to what is required by the display. Inone embodiment, one may want to provide the controller 609 with thecapability to calculate the complete area of the panoramic image and therelated pixel count. The controller 609 may have access to the pixeldensity that is required by a display, which may be stored in a memory610 or may be provided to the camera. Based on this information thecontroller may provide the image processor with a down-sampling factor,whereby the images to be processed may be downsampled to a lower pixeldensity and the image processor can process images in a faster way on areduced number of pixels. Such a downsizing may be manually confirmed bya user by selecting a display mode. Ultimate display on a largehigh-quality HD display may still require high pixel count processing.If, for instance, a user decides to review the panoramic image as avideo only on the camera display, the user may decide to use adownsampling rate which increases the number of images that can be savedor increase the play time of panoramic video that can be stored inmemory.

FIG. 11 shows an illustrative embodiment 1100 of a camera that canrecord at least 3 images concurrently of a scene from differentperspectives or angles. The camera may provide a single multiplexedsignal containing the three video signals recorded through 3 differentlenses 1101, 1102 and 1103 and recorded on image sensors 1104, 1105 and1106. The sensors are connected on a network which may be a buscontrolled by bus controller 1110 and may store their signals on astorage medium or memory 1112 which is also connected to the network orbus. Further connected to the network is a controller 1111 with its ownmemory if required, which controls the motor units and may provideinstructions to the image processor 1113. Also connected to the networkare three motors units 1107, 1108 and 1109 for zooming and focusinglenses and moving lenses or lens units laterally or rotationally asrequired to put the lenses in one plane. Motor unit 1108 may only havezoom and focus capabilities in a further embodiment as lens unit1102/1105 may be treated as the reference lens. The motors may becontrolled by the controller 1111. Also connected to the network is animage processor 1113 with its own memory for instruction storage ifrequired. Furthermore, the camera may have a control input 1114 forproviding external control commands, which may include start recording,stop recording, focus and zoom commands. An input command may alsoinclude record only with center lens and sensor. An input command mayalso include record with all three lenses and sensors.

The camera also may have an output 1115 which provides a signalrepresenting the instant image at one or all of the sensors. An output1116 may be included to provide the data that was stored in the memory1112. It should be clear that some of the outputs may be combined tofulfill the above functions. Furthermore, the camera may have additionalfeatures that are also common in single lens cameras, including a viewerand the like. A display 1118 may also be part of the camera. The displaymay be hinged at 119 to enable it to be rotated in a viewable position.The display is connected to the bus and is enabled to display thepanoramic image which may be a video image. Additional features are alsocontemplated. The camera has at least the features and is enabled to becalibrated and apply methods as disclosed herein.

In a first embodiment, a user may select if images from a single lens orof all three lenses will be recorded. If the user selects recordingimages from all three lenses, then via the camera controller a controlsignal may be provided that focuses all three lenses on a scene.Calibrated software may be used to ensure that the three lenses andtheir control motors are focused correctly. In a further embodiment, theimage signals are transmitted to the memory or data storage unit 1112for storing the video or still images.

In yet a further embodiment, the signals from the three lenses may befirst processed by the processor 1113 to be registered correctly into apotentially contiguous image formed by 3 images that can be displayed ina contiguous way. The processor in a further embodiment may form aregistered image from 3 images that may be displayed on a singledisplay.

The processor in yet a further embodiment may also process the images sothat they are registered in a contiguous way if displayed, be it on onedisplay or on three different displays.

In yet a further embodiment, the processor may register the three imagesand multiplex the signals so that they can be displayed concurrently onthree different displays after being demultiplexed.

After being processed the processed signals from the sensors can bestored in storage/memory unit 1112. In yet a further embodiment, thesignals are provided on an output 1115.

The reason for the different embodiment is the preference of a user fordisplay and to make a camera potentially less complex and/or costly. Onemay, for instance, elect to make sure that all lenses and their controlsare calibrated as to focus and/or zoom correctly. One may registerimages already in the camera through the processor 1113. However, onemay also provide the three images either directly or from memory asparallel signals to a computing device such as a personal computer. Thecomputing device may provide the possibility to select, for instance ina menu, the display of an image of a single lens/sensor. It may alsoprovide a selection to display all three images in a registered fashion.The computing device may then have the means to register the images,store them in a contiguous fashion in a memory or a storage medium andplay the images in a registered fashion either on one display or onthree different displays.

For instance one may provide a signal available on output 1116, whichmay be a wireless or radio transmitter. Accordingly, a camera may make 3or more video images, which may be multiplexed and registered ormultiplexed and not registered available as a radio signal. Such radiosignal may be received by a receiver and provided to a computing devicethat can process the signals to provide a registered image. A registeredimage may be provided on one display. It may also be provided onmultiple displays.

There are different combinations in processing, multiplexing,registering, storing, outputting and displaying. One may elect to domost processing in the camera. One may also do the majority of theprocessing in the computing device and not in the camera. One mayprovide lens setting parameters with image data to facilitate processingby a computing device for processing and consequently displaying theregistered images.

FIG. 12 shows a diagram of a camera for creating and displayingpanoramic images by using 2 sensor/lens units 1201 and 1202 and havingat least one autofocus unit 1203. Sensor/lens unit 1202 has at least afocus motor 1205 and sensor/lens unit 1201 has at least a focus motor1206. The camera also has a controller 1209 which may have its separatememory 1210, which may be ROM memory. The camera also has an imageprocessor 1211 which can process image data provided by sensor/lensunits 1201 and 1202. A memory 1214 may store the panoramic imagesgenerated by the image processor. Motors may be controlled by thecontroller 1209, based in part on instructions or data retrieved frommemory 1210 related to a setting of the autofocus unit 1203. Associatedwith a focus setting may be coordinates of sensor areas within sensorsof units 1201 and 1202 of which the generated data will be processed bythe image processor 1211. The controller 1209 may provide processor 1211with the required limitations based on a focus setting. All settings maybe determined during calibration steps as described earlier herein. Adisplay 121 may be included to display the panoramic image. Signalsrelated to a panoramic image may be provided on output 1204. In afurther embodiment lens unit 1202 may be provided with a motor unit thatcan control lateral shifts and/or rotation of 1202 in relation to unit1201. Settings of this motor unit may also be determined in acalibration setting. Diagram 1200 provides a top view and crosssectional view of the camera. Diagram 1250 provides a front view.

In one embodiment, a multi-lens camera is part of a mobile computingdevice, which may be a mobile phone or a Personal Digital Assistant(PDA) or a Blackberry® type of device, which may be provided with 2 ormore or 3 or more lenses with related photo/video sensors which arecalibrated to take a combined and registered image which may be a videoimage. A diagram is shown in FIG. 13 of a mobile computing device 1300which may communicate in a wireless fashion with a network, for instancevia an antenna 1304. While the antenna is shown it may also be hiddenwithin the body. As an illustrative example the device has 3 lenses1301, 1302 and 1303 which are enabled to record a scene in a way whereinthe three individual images of the scene can be combined and registeredinto a wide view panoramic image, which may be a video image. The devicehas a capability to store the images in a memory. The device has aprocessor that can create a combined image. The combined image, whichmay be a static image such as a photograph or a video image can bestored in memory in the device. It may also be transmitted via theantenna 1304 or via a transmission port for output 1305 to an externaldevice. The output 1305 may be a wired port for instance a USB output.It may also be a wireless output, for instance a Bluetooth output.

Viewing of the image may take place real-time on a screen 1403 of adevice 1400 as shown in FIG. 14, which may be a different view of thedevice of FIG. 13. For instance, FIG. 13 may be a view of the devicefrom the front and FIG. 14 from the back of the device. In FIG. 14 it isshown that the device is comprised of at least two parts 1400 and 1405,connected via a hinge system with connectors 1402 that allows the twobodies to be unfolded and body 1405 turned from facing inside to facingoutside. Body 1400 may contains input controls such a keys. Body 1405may contain a viewing display 1403. The lenses of FIG. 13 are on theoutside of 1400 in FIG. 14 and not visible in the diagram. Body 1405with screen 1403 may serve as a viewer when recording a panoramic imagewith the lenses. It may also be used for viewing recorded images thatare being played on the device. The device of FIG. 14 may also receivevia a wireless connection an image that was transmitted by an externaldevice. Furthermore, the device of FIG. 14 may also have the port 1405that may serve as an input port for receiving image data for display ondisplay screen 1403.

In one embodiment, one may assume that the surface of the device asshown in FIG. 13 is substantially flat. In that case, the camera lenses1301, 1302 and 1303 have a combined maximum field of view of 180degrees. This may be sufficient for cameras with 3 lenses wherein eachlens has a maximum field-of-vision of 60 degrees. In a furtherembodiment, one may have more than 3 lenses, enabling a combinedfield-of-vision of more than 180 degrees, or the field of view of thelenses adds up to more than 180 degrees. In such a further embodiment,the surface may be curved or angled, allowing 3 or more lenses to have acombined field-of-view of greater than 180 degrees.

A camera on a mobile phone is often considered a low cost accessory.Accordingly, one may prefer a multi-lens camera that will createpanorama type images (either photographs and/or video) at the lowestpossible cost. In such a low cost embodiment one may, for instance,apply only a two lens camera. This is shown in diagram in FIG. 15 withcamera phone 1500 with lenses 1501 and 1502. In diagram in FIG. 16 it isshown how scenes are seen by the lenses. Lens 1501 ‘sees’ scene 1602 andlens 1502 ‘sees’ scene 1601. It is clear that the two sensor/lens unitsare not well oriented in regard to each other. As was described earlierabove one may calibrate the camera to achieve an optimal and alignedpanoramic image by good calibration. A processor in the camera maystitch the images together, based on control input by a calibratedcontroller. From a calibration it may be decided that lines 1603 and1604 are merge lines which may be applied to image data. This againallows created registering of images without having to search for apoint of registration. The ‘stitching’ may be as simple as just puttingdefined parts of the images together. Some edge processing may berequired to remove the edge between images if it's visible. In general,the outside of an image may suffer from lens distortion.

FIG. 17 shows then the registered and combined image 1700. The image maybe a photograph. It may also be a video image.

The embodiment as provided in FIG. 15 and its result shown in FIG. 17 isunusual in at least one sense that it creates a center of an image byusing the edges of the images created by two lenses. In general, as insome aspects of the present invention, one assigns one lens to thecenter and presumably an important part of the image. The aboveembodiment allows for creating a good quality image by using inexpensivecomponents and adjusting the quality of a combined image by a set ofinstructions in a processor. Except for a focus mechanism not othermotors are required. Thus, relatively inexpensive components, few movingparts and a calibrated controller and an image processor with memoryprovide a desirable consumer article. Prices of electronic components godown while their performance constantly increases. Accordingly, one maycreate the above camera also in a manufacturing environment that notapplies expensive manufacturing tolerances on the manufacturing process.Deviations in manufacturing can be off-set by electronics performance.

The methods provided herein may create a panoramic image that makesoptimal use of available image sensor area. In some cases, this maycreate panoramic images that are not conforming to standard image sizes.One may as a further embodiment of the present invention implement aprogram in a controller that will create a panoramic image of apredefined size. Such a program may take actual sensor size and pixeldensity to fit a combined image into a preset format. In order toachieve a preferred size it may cause to lose image area. One mayprovide more image size options by for instance using two rows ofsensor/lens units as for instance shown in FIG. 5 with two rows of 3image sensors/lenses, or as shown in FIG. 18 by using two rows of 2image sensors/lenses. Especially if one wants to print panoramic imageson standard size photographic paper one may try to create an image thathas a standard size, or that conforms in pixel count with at least onedimension of photographic print material.

In a further embodiment of the present invention one may adjust the sizeof an image sensor to allow creating standard size images or at leastwith one dimension such as the vertical dimension in a standard size andstandard quality or higher.

Panoramic image cameras will become very affordable as prices of imagesensors continue to fall over the coming years. By applying the methodsdisclosed herein one can create panoramic cameras with inexpensivesensors and electronics, having an excess of sensor area and/or lensessubstitute for a need for motors, mechanisms and mechanical drivers.

It is to be understood that deviations of placement of sensors in thedrawings herein may have been greatly exaggerated. It is to be expectedthat mis-alignment of sensors can be limited to about 1 mm or less. Thatmay still represent a significant amount of pixels. Rotationalpositioning deviations may be less than about 2 degrees or 1 degree.That may still require significant sensor area adjustment. For instance,with a sensor having 3000×2000 pixels at a rotation of 1 degree withouta lateral shift may have a shift of pixels of about 50 pixels in an ydirection and a shift of 1 pixel in an x direction. Clearly, such adeviation requires a correction. However, the required mechanicaladjustment in distance may well be within the limits of for instancepiezo-motors. For larger adjustments other types of known motors may beapplied. It also clear that though shifts of 50 pixels or even higherare unwanted, they still leave significant sensor area for usable image.

Due to the multiplier effect of the image sensor, zoom effects and othereffects related to lens, lens position, image sensors and lightingconditions and the like one may have different lens settings of thelenses related to a reference lens. It is clearly the easiest togenerate as may different conditions and settings during calibration aspossible and save those settings with the related image areas andfurther stitching and blending parameters in a memory. A certain settingunder certain conditions of a reference will be associated with relatedsettings such as focus, aperture, exposure time, lens position and zoomof the other lenses. These positions may also be directly related withthe active areas and/or merge lines of image sensors to assist inautomatically generating a combined panoramic image. This may includetransformation parameters for an image processor to further stitchand/or blend the separate images into a panoramic image.

It should be clear that lens settings between two extreme settings, suchas for instance close-up object, or far away object may be significant.It is also clear that there may be only a finite number of calibratedsettings. One may provide an interpolation program that interpolatesbetween two positions and settings. The images may be video images. Onemay move a camera, for instance to follow a moving object. One mayprovide instructions, via a controller for instance, to keep a referencelens in a predetermined setting, to make sure that when the objecttemporarily leaves the field of vision of the reference lens thatsettings are not changed.

In a further embodiment of the present invention, images in a staticformat, in a video format, in a combined and registered format and/or inan individual format may be stored on a storage medium or a memory thatis able to store a symbol as a non-binary symbol able to assume one of 3or more states, or one of 4 or more states.

A combined, also called panoramic image exists as a single image thatcan be processed as a complete image. It was shown above that a combinedand registered image may be created in the camera or camera device, by aprocessor that resides in the camera or camera device. The combinedimage, which may be a video image, may be stored in a memory in thecamera or camera device. It may be displayed on a display that is a partor integral part of the camera device and may be a part of the body ofthe camera device. The combined image may also be transmitted to anexternal display device. A panoramic image may also be created from dataprovided by a multi-sensor/lens camera to an external device such as acomputer.

Currently, the processing power of processors, especially of DSPs orDigital Signal Processors is such that advanced image processing methodsmay be applied real-time on 2D images. One of such methods is imageextraction or segmentation of an image from its background. Such methodsare widely known in medical imaging and in photo editing software and invideo surveillance. Methods for foreground/background segmentation arefor instance described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,424,175 to Lipton et al.,filed on Feb. 27, 2007; U.S. Pat. No. 7,123,745 to Lee issued on Oct.17, 2006; U.S. Pat. No. 7,227,893 issued on Jun. 5, 2007, which areincorporated herein by reference in their entirety and in many morereferences. For instance, Adobe's Photoshop provides the magnetic lassotool to segment an image from its background.

Current methods, which can be implemented and executed as software on aprocessor allows for a combined and registered image to be processed.For instance, such an image may be a person as an object. One mayidentify the person as an object that has to be segmented from abackground. In one embodiment, one may train a segmentation system byidentifying the person in a panoramic image as the to be segmentedobject. For instance, one may put the person in front of a white orsubstantially single color background and let the processor segment theperson as the image. One may have the person assume different positions,such as sitting, moving arms, moving head, bending, walking, or anyother position that is deemed to be useful.

In order to facilitate later tracking of the person by a camera, one mayprovide the person with easy to recognize and detectable marks atpositions that will be learned by the segmentation software. Thesemethods for segmentation and tracking are known. They may involvespecial reflective marks or special color bands around limbs and head.One may store the learned aspects and/or other elements such asstatistical properties of a panoramic object such as a person in amemory and which can be applied by a processor to recognize, detect,segment and/or track a person with a multi-sensor/lens video camera. Inone embodiment, a system detects, tracks and segments the person as anobject from a background and buffers the segmented image in a memory,which may be a buffer memory.

In one embodiment, one may insert the segmented object, which may be aperson, in a display of a computer game. The computer game may be partof a computer system, having a processor, one or more input deviceswhich may include a panoramic camera system as provided herein and adevice that provided positional information of an object, one or morestorage devices and display. For instance, the computer game may be asimulation of a tennis game, wherein the person has a game controller orwand in his/her hand to simulate a tennis racket. The WII® gamecontroller of Nintendo® may be such a game controller. The game displaymay insert the image of the actual user as created by the panoramicsystem and tracked, and segmented by an image processor into the gamedisplay. Such an insert of real-life motion may greatly enhance the gameexperience for a gamer. The computer game may create a virtual gameenvironment. It may also change and/or enhance the appearance of theinserted image. The image may be inserted from a front view. It may alsobe inserted from a rear view by the camera. A gamer may use two or moregame controllers, which may be wireless. A game controller may be handheld. It may also be positioned on the body or on the head or on anypart of the body that is important in a game. A game controller may havea haptic or force-feedback generator that simulates interactive contactwith the gaming environment.

In general, gamers use a gaming system and play in a fairly restrictedarea, such as a bedroom that is relatively small. In such anenvironment, it is difficult to create a full body image with a singlelens camera as the field of vision is generally too small. One may applya wide angle lens or a fish-eye lens. These lenses may be expensiveand/or create distortion in an image. A camera enabled to generatevertical panoramic images such as shown in FIG. 19 enables full bodyimage games as provided above from a small distance. The camera as shownin diagram 1900 has at least two sensor/lens units 1901 and 1902 and atleast one autofocus unit 1903. It is not strictly required to use onecamera in one body with at least two lenses. One may also position atleast two cameras with overlap in one construction and have an externalcomputing device create the vertical panoramic image.

A person may have a length of about 1.50 meter or greater. In general,that means that the position of a camera with one lens has to be atleast 300 cm away from the person, if the lens has a field-of-view ofsixty degrees. The field of view of a standard 35 mm camera is less than60 degrees and in most cases will not capture a full size image of aperson at a distance of 3 meter, though it may have no trouble focusingon objects at close distances. It may, therefore, be beneficial to applya panoramic camera as disclosed herein with either two or three lenses,but with at least two lenses to capture a person of 1.50 meter tall ortaller at a distant of at least 1.50 meter. Other measurements may alsobe possible. For instance, a person may be 1.80 meter tall and needs tobe captured on a full person image. This may require a camera or acamera system of at least 2 lenses and images sensors, though it mayalso require a camera or a camera system of 3 lenses and image sensors.

One may want to follow the horizontal movements of a gamer in arestricted area. In such a case the cameras as shown in FIG. 5 and FIG.18 may be helpful.

A controller or a processor as mentioned herein is a computer devicethat can execute instructions that are stored and retrieved from amemory. The instructions of a processor or controller may act uponexternal data. The results of executing instructions are data signals.In the controller these data signals may control a device such as amotor or it may control a processor. An image processor processes imagedata to create a new image. Both a controller and a processor may havefixed instructions. They may also be programmable. For instance,instructions may be provided by a memory, which may be a ROM, a RAM orany other medium that can provide instructions to a processor or acontroller. Processors and controllers may be integrated circuits, theymay be programmed general processor, they may be processors with aspecific instruction set and architecture. A processor and/or acontroller may be realized from discrete components, from programmablecomponents such as FPGA or they may be a customized integrated circuit.

Lens and sensor modules are well known and can be purchasedcommercially. They may contain single lenses. They may also containmultiple lenses. They may also contain zoom lenses. The units may haveintegrated focus mechanisms, which may be piezomotors or any other typeof motor, mechanism or MEMS (micro-electro-mechanical system).Integrated zoom mechanisms for sensor/lens units are known. Liquidlenses or other variable are also known and may be used. When the termmotor is used herein or piezo-motor it may be replaced by the termmechanism, as many mechanisms to drive a position of a lens or asensor/lens unit are known. Preferably, mechanisms that can be driven orcontrolled by a signal are used.

FIG. 20 shows a diagram of one embodiment of a sensor/lens unit 2000 inaccordance with an aspect of the present invention. The unit has a body2001 with a sensor 2002, a lens barrel 2003 which contains at least onelens 2004, the barrel can be moved by a mechanism 2005. The lens unitmay also contain a zoom mechanism, which is not shown. The unit can bemoved relative to the body of the camera by a moving mechanism 2006. Themovements that may be included are lateral movement in the plane of thesensor, rotation in the plane of the sensor and rotation of the plane ofthe sensor, which provides the unit with all required degrees offreedom, as is shown as 208.

Other embodiments are possible. For instance, one may have the lensmovable relative to the sensor as is shown in FIG. 21, wherein lensbarrel 2103 may be moved in any plane relative to the sensor by lateralmechanisms 2109 and 2112 and by vertical mechanisms 2110 and 2111.

A mechanism may be driven by a controller. This means that thecontroller has at least an interface with the driving mechanisms inorder to provide the correct driving signal. A controller may also havean interface to accept signals such as sensor signals, for instance froman autofocus unit. The core of a controller may be a processor that isable to retrieve data and instructions from a memory and executeinstructions to process data and to generate data or instructions to asecond device. Such a second device may be another processor, a memoryor a MEMS such as a focus mechanism. It was shown herein as an aspect ofthe present invention that a controller may determine a focus and/or azoom setting of a camera and depending on this setting provide data toan image processor. The image processor is a processor that is enabledto process data related to an image. In general, instructions andprocessing of these instructions are arranged in an image processor insuch a way that the complete processing of an image happens very fast,preferably in real-time. As processors are becoming much faster andincreasingly having multiple cores, real-time processing of images aswell as executing control instructions and retrieving and storing ofdata from and in a single or even multiple memories may be performed ina single chip, which may be called a single processor. Such a singleprocessor may thus perform the tasks of a controller as well as an imageprocessor. The terms controller and image processor may be interpretedas a distinction between functions that can be performed by the sameprocessor. It is also to be understood that flows of instructions anddata may be illustrative in nature. For instance, a controller mayprovide an image processor with the coordinates of a sensor area, whichis rotated with respect to the axis system of the sensor. One mayactually buffer data from a sensor area, defined by the coordinates, ina memory that represents a rectangular axis system. Differentconfigurations of providing an image processor with the correct data arethus possible that lead to the image processor accessing the exact ornearly exact sensor are a data to exactly or nearly exactly stitch 2 ormore images.

For reasons of simplicity, the parameters for camera settings have beenso far limited to focus, zoom and position and related active sensorareas. Light conditions and shutter speed, as well as shutter aperturesettings, may also be used. In fact, all parameters that play a role increating a panoramic image may be stored in a memory and associated witha specific setting to be processed or controlled by a controller. Suchparameters may for instance include transformational parameters thatdetermine modifying pixels in one or more images to create a panoramicimage. For instance, two images may form a panoramic image, but requirepixel blending to adjust for mismatching exposure conditions. Two imagesmay also be matched perfectly for a panoramic image, but are mismatcheddue to lens deformation. Such deformation may be adjusted by a spatialtransformation of pixels in one or two images. A spatial transformationmay be pre-determined in a calibration step, including which pixels haveto be transformed in what way. This may be expressed as parametersreferring to one or more pre-programmed transformations, which may alsobe stored in memory and associated with a reference setting.

The calibration methods provided herein allow an image processor toexactly or nearly exactly match on the pixel two or more images forstitching into a panoramic image. This allows skipping almost completelya search algorithm for registering images. Even if not a complete matchis obtained immediately, a registering algorithm can be applied thatonly has to search a very small search area to find the best match oftwo images. The image processor may adjust pixel intensities after amatch was determined or apply other known algorithms to hide a possibletransition line between two stitches images. For instance, it may bedetermined during calibration that at a lens setting no perfect matchbetween two images can be found due to distortion. One may determine theamount of distortion at the lens setting and have the image processorperform an image transformation that creates two registered images. Thesame approach applies if the uncertainty between two images is severalpixel distances, for instance, due to deviations in driving mechanisms.One may instruct the image processor to for instance perform aninterpolation. The parameters of the interpolation may be determinedfrom predetermined pixel positions.

The adjustment of two or more images to create a single registeredpanoramic along for instance a merge line, may require a transformationof at least one image. It may also require blending of pixel intensitiesin a transition area. The processing steps for such transformation andor blending may be represented by a code and/or transformation and/orblending parameters. A code and/or parameters may be associated in acalibration step with a setting and conditions related to a referencelens and/or reference sensor unit and saved in a calibration memorywhich can be accessed by a controller. Thus, the controller willrecognize a specific setting of a reference lens and retrieve theassociated settings for the other lenses and sensors, includingtransformation and/or blending parameters and the sensor area upon whichall operations have to be performed, including merging of sensor areas.

A controller may be a microcontroller such as a programmablemicrocontroller. These controllers that take input from external sourcessuch as a sensor and drive a mechanism based on such input and/orprevious states are known. Controllers that control aspects of a camera,such as focus, zoom, aperture and the like are also known. Such acontroller is for instance disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,259,792 issuedon Aug. 21, 2007, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,727,941 issued on Apr. 27, 2004,which are both incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. Sucha controller may also be known or be associated with a driving device.Such a driving device is for instance disclosed in U.S. Pat. No.7,085,484 issued on Aug. 1, 2006, U.S. Pat. No. 5,680,649 issued on Oct.21, 1997 and U.S. Pat. No. 7,365,789 issued on Apr. 29, 2008, which areall 3 incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

In one embodiment of the present invention, all images are recorded atsubstantially the same time. In a second embodiment, at least two imagesmay be taken at substantially not the same time.

In a further embodiment, a camera has 3 or more lenses, each lens beingassociated with an image sensor. Each lens may be a zoom lens. Alllenses may be in a relatively fixed position in a camera body. In such aconstruction, a lens may focus, and it may zoom, however, it has in allother ways a fixed position in relation to a reference position of thecamera. As an illustrative example, lenses are provided in a camera thatmay be aligned in one line. Such an arrangement is not a requiredlimitation. Lenses may be arranged in any arrangement. For instance 3lenses may be arranged in a triangle. Multiple lenses may also bearranged in a rectangle, a square, or an array, or a circle, or anyarrangement that may provide a stitched image as desired. Thecalibration of lenses and sensor area may be performed in a similar wayas described earlier. Each lens may have its own image sensor. One mayalso have two or more lenses share a sensor. By calibrating and storingdata related to active image sensor areas related to a setting of atleast one reference lens, which may include one or more merge linesbetween image areas of image sensors one may automatically stitch imagesinto one stitched image.

The herein disclosed multi-lens cameras and stitching methods allowcreating panoramic or stitched image cameras without expensivesynchronization mechanisms to position lenses. The problem of lenscoordination which may require expensive mechanisms and control has beenchanged to a coordination of electronic data generated by image sensors.The coordination of electronic image data has been greatly simplified bya simple calibration step which can be stored in a memory. Thecalibration data can be used by a controller, which can control focus,zoom and other settings. The memory also has the information on how tomerge image data to create a stitched image.

In a further embodiment, one may provide one or more lenses withmechanisms that allow a lens and if required a corresponding imagesensor to me moved in such a way that an optimal field of vision, orquality of image or any other criterion for a stitched image that can beachieved by moving lenses can be met.

In yet a further embodiment, one may have a set of lenses each relatedto an image sensor, a lens having a zoom capability. It is known that ahigher zoom factor provides a narrower field of vision. Accordingly, twolenses that in unzoomed position provide a stitched panoramic image, mayprovide in zoomed position two non-overlapping images that thus cannotbe used to form a stitched or panoramic image. In such an embodiment,one may have at least one extra lens positioned between a first and asecond lens, wherein the extra lens will not contribute to an image inunzoomed position. However, such an extra lens and its correspondingimage sensor, may contribute to a stitched image if a certain zoomfactor would create a situation whereby the first and second lens cannot create a desired stitched or panoramic image. As was explainedbefore, the relevant merge lines or active areas of an image sensor willbe calibrated against for instance a set zoom factor. When a certainzoom factor is reached, an image may be formed from images generatedfrom the first, the second and the extra lens. All those settings can becalibrated and stored in a memory. One may include yet more extra lensesto address additional and stronger zoom factors.

Aspects of the present invention are applied to the creation ofpanoramic images using two or more sensor/lens units. There is also aneed to create stereographic images using two sensor/lens systems. Theaspects of the present invention as applied to two lenses for panoramicimages may also be applied to create stereographic images.

A further illustration of processing data of a limited area of an imagesensor is provided in FIG. 22. Assume that an image has to be stitchedfrom images generated by a sensor 2201 and a sensor 2202. Forillustrative purposes, these sensors are pixel row aligned and aretranslated with respect to each other over a horizontal line. It shouldbe clear that the sensors may also have a translation in verticaldirection and may be rotated with respect to each other. For simplicity,reasons only one translation will be considered. Each sensor isdetermined by rows of sensor pixels which are represented in diagram bya little square. Each pixel in a sensor is assigned an address orlocation such as P(1,1) in 2201 in the upper left corner. A pixel P(x,y)represents how a pixel is represented as data for processing. What iscalled a sensor pixel may be sets of micro sensors able to detect forinstance Red, Green or Blue light. Accordingly, what is called a sensorpixel is data that represents a pixel in an image that originates from asensor area which may be assigned an address on a sensor or in a memory.A pixel may be represented by for instance an RGBA value.

A sensor may generate a W by H pixel image, for instance a 1600 by 1200pixel image, of 1200 lines, each line having 1600 pixels. In FIG. 22 in2201 the start of the lowest line at the lower left corner is then pixelP(1200,1). Assume that, during calibration, a stitched image can beformed from pixels along pixel line P(1, n-1) and P(m,n-1), whereby themerge line cuts off the data formed by area defined by P(1,n), P(1,e),P(m.n) and P(m,e) when the merge line is a straight line parallel to theedge of the sensor. However, other merge lines are possible. A secondand similar sensor 2202 is used to provide the pixels of the image thathas to be merged with the first image to form the stitched image. Thesensor 2202 has pixel Q(x,y), which starting pixel at Q(1,1) and bottompixel line starting at Q(m, 1) and the merge line running betweenQ(1,r-1) and Q(1,r) and Q(m,r-1) and Q(m,r).

One may process the data generated by the image sensors in differentways. One may store only the ‘useful data’ in a contiguous way in amemory. This means that the non-used data such as generated by areaP(1,n), P(1,e), P(m,n) and P(m,e) and Q(1,1) Q(1,r-1), Q(m,r-1) andQ(m,1) is not stored. In a first embodiment, one may process the pixelsto be stored for blending and transformation before storage.Accordingly, a stitched panoramic image will be stored in memory.

In a second embodiment, one may store data generated by the whole sensorarea in a memory. However, one may instruct a memory reader to read onlythe required data from the memory for display. During reading one mayprocess the data for blending and transformation and display only theread data which may have been processed, which will form a stitchedimage.

Fixed focus lens, digital zoom, barrel and pincushion distortion,keystoning. correction at capture and post-capture. Merge line, Fixedoverlap at different positions of lens. Scaling effects to standardformat.

It was shown above in one embodiment that one may include a focusmechanism such as autofocus in a camera to generate a panoramic image.In one embodiment one may have a focus mechanism associated with onelens also being associated with at least one other lens and potentiallythree or more lenses. This means that one focus mechanism drives thefocus setting of at least two, or three or more lenses. One may also saythat the focus setting of one lens drives all the other lenses. Or thatall (except a first) lens are followers or in a master/slave relation tothe focus of a first lens. Each lens has an image sensor. Each imagesensor has an active sensor area from which generated data will be used.It may be that the sensor has a larger area than the active area thatgenerates image data. However, the data outside the active area will notbe used.

The data of the entire sensor may be stored, and only the data definedby the active area is used. One may also only store the data generatedby the active area and not store the other image data of the remainingarea outside the active area. One may illustrate this with FIG. 22. Forinstance an active area of an image sensor 2201 may be defined as therectangular area defined by pixels P(1,1) P(1,n-1), P(m,n-1) and P(m,1). In a first embodiment one may store all data generated by sensorarea P(1,1), P(1,e), P(m,e) and P(m,1), wherein n, m and e may bepositive integers with e>n. However, one may define the active area byfor instance the addresses of a memory wherein only the data related tothe active area is stored. Such an address may be a fixed addressdefining the corners and sides of the rectangle, provided with ifrequired an off-set. The active sensor area is then defined by theaddresses and range of addresses from which data should be read.

In a further embodiment on may also only store in a memory datagenerated by the active area. If areas are defined correctly thenmerging of the data should in essence be overlap free and create astitched image. If one does not define the areas (or merge lines)correctly then one will see in merged data a strip (in the rectangularcase) of overlap image content. For illustrative purposes rectangularareas are provided. It should be clear that any shape is permissible aslong as the edges of images fit perfectly for seamless connection tocreate a stitched and registered image.

The active areas of image sensors herein are related to each lens with alens setting, for instance during a calibration step. During operation acontroller, based on the lens focus setting, will identify the relatedactive areas and will make sure that only the data generated by theactive areas related to a focus setting will be used to create apanoramic image. If the active areas are carefully selected, merged datawill create a panoramic image without overlap. It should be clear thatoverlap data creates non-matching image edges or areas that destroy thepanoramic effect. Essentially no significant image processing in findingoverlap is required in the above approach, provided one sets theparameters for merging data appropriately.

In a further step one may apply fine tuning one may want in anoptimization step of a range of a few pixels horizontally and verticallyto establish or search for overlap. In a further embodiment optimizationmay be in a range of a shift of at most 10 pixels horizontally and/orvertically. In a further embodiment such an optimization step may be atmost 50 pixels.

Such optimization may be required because of drift of settings. Suchoptimized settings may be maintained during a certain period, forinstance during recording of images directly following optimization, oras long a recording session is lasting. One may also permanently updatesettings, and repeat such optimization at certain intervals.

Fixed Focus Lenses

In a further embodiment one may wish to use two or more lenses with afixed focus. Fixed focus lenses are very inexpensive. In a fixed focuscase the defined active areas of the sensors related to the lenses arealso fixed. However, one has to determine during positioning of thelenses in the camera what the overlap is required to be and where themerge line is to be positioned. Very small lenses and lens assembliesare already available. The advantage of this is that lenses may bepositioned very close to each other thus reducing or preventing parallaxeffects. A lens assembly may be created in different ways. For instancein a first embodiment one may create a fixed lens assembly with at leasttwo lenses and related image sensors, the lenses being set in a fixedfocus. One may determine an optimal position and angle of the lenses insuch an assembly as shown in diagram in FIG. 23 for a set of two lenses.Three or more lenses are also possible. In 2301 and 2302 indicate theimage sensors and 2303 and 2304 the related lenses of a 2 lens assembly.

Each lens in FIG. 23 has a certain field-of-view. Each lens ispositioned (in a fixed position in this case) in relation to the otherlens or lenses. Lines 2307 and 2308 indicate a minimum distance of anobject to still be adequately recorded with the fixed focus lens. 2305and 2306 indicate objects at a certain distance of the camera. One hasto determine in a pre-manufacturing step, based on the quality of thelens, the fixed focus setting, the required overlap and the desired viewof the panoramic image and other factors what the angle is under whichthe two (or in other cases 3 or more) lenses will be positioned. Oncethat is determined, a lens assembly will be manufactured with lensesunder such an angle. For instance, one may create a molded housing thataccepts individual lenses with there sensors in a certain position. Onemay create an assembly with two or more lenses that can be integrated ina camera such as a mobile phone. One may also create a camera housingthat accepts the individual lenses in a certain position, or any otherconfiguration that creates a substantially repeatable, mass productiontype of lens assembly.

FIG. 24 demonstrates the effect of putting lenses under a differentangle. Clearly, one has to decide based on different criteria, forinstance how wide one wants to make the panoramic image and how closeone wants an object to be in order to be put on an image. Quality oflenses may also play a role. Once the decision is made on the angle ofthe lenses, unless one installs mechanisms to rotate or move lenses, theangle and position of lenses are pretty much fixed. One can then make anassembly of lenses with lenses fixed to be put into a camera, or one mayput 2 or more lenses in a fixture on a camera.

In both cases one most likely will have to calibrate the active sensorareas related to the fixed lenses. In a preferred embodiment the lenseswill be put in an assembly or fixture with such precision thatdetermination of active sensor areas only has to happen once. Thecoordinates determining an active area or the addresses in a memorywherefrom to read only active area image data may be stored in a memory,such as a ROM and can be used in any camera that has the specific lensassembly. While preferred, it is also an unlikely embodiment. Modernimage sensors, even in relatively cheap cameras, usually have over 1million pixels and probably over 3 million pixels. This means that a rowof pixels in a sensor easily has at least 1000 pixels. This means that 1degree in accuracy of positioning may mean an offset of 30 or morepixels. This may fall outside the accuracy of manufacturing ofrelatively cheap components.

It should be noted that while an image sensor may have 3 million pixelsor more, that this resolution is meant for display on a large screen orbeing printed on high resolution photographic paper. A small display ina relatively inexpensive (or even expensive) camera may have no morethan 60.000 pixels. This means that for display alone a preset activearea may be used in a repeatable manner. One would have to downsamplethe data generated by the active image sensor area to be displayed.There are several known ways to do that. Assuming that one also storesthe high resolution data one may for instance selectively read the highresolution data by for instance skipping ranges of pixels duringreading. One may also average blocks of pixels whereby a block ofaverages pixels forms a new to be displayed pixel in a more involvedapproach. Other downsample techniques are known and can be applied.

In a further embodiment one creates an assembly of lenses and associatesa specific assembly with a memory, such as a non-erasable, orsemi-erasable or any other memory to store coordinates or data not beingimage data that determines the image data associated with an active areaof an image sensor. One does this for at least two image sensors in alens assembly, in such a way that an image created from combined datagenerated by active image sensor areas will create a registeredpanoramic image.

This is illustrated in diagram in FIG. 25. Two image sensors 2501 and2502 show images with overlap. It is to be understood that this concernsimages. The sensors themselves do of course not overlap. It is to beunderstood that the image sensors are shown with a relative angle thatis exaggerated. One should be able to position the sensors/lenses insuch a way that the angle is less than 5 degrees or even less than 1degree. Assume that one wants to create an image 2403 formed bycombining data of active areas of the sensors. The example is limited tofinding a vertical or almost vertical merge line and lines 2504 and 2505are shown. Many more different vertical merge lines are possible. Forinstance, in an extreme example one may take the edge 2506 of imagesensor 2501 as a merge line. For different reasons extreme merge linesmay not be preferred.

It is known that lenses will not generate a geometrical rectangularimage with all in reality parallel lines being parallel in the imagefrom a lens. In fact many lines will appear to be curved or slanted. Forinstance, lenses are known to have barrel distortion which isillustrated in FIG. 26. It shows curvature in an image from a sensor2601 and 2602. Lens distortion such as barrel distortion and pincushiondistortion is generally worse the more removed from the center of thelens. FIG. 27 shows a merged image from image sensors 2601 and 2602.Clearly, when there is more overlap there is less distortion. It is alsoimportant to position the merge line in the correct position. This isillustrated with merge lines 2603, 2604 and 2605. It shows directly adisadvantage of creating a panoramic image from only two lenses. Thecenter of such image, which will draw the most attention, is actuallyformed from the parts of the individual images with the most distortion.FIG. 28 shows a registered panoramic image formed from at least 3sensors/lenses with merge lines 2801 and 2802. The center of the imagewill be relatively distortion free.

It is thus clear that in one embodiment one should determine in acalibration step in a fixed lens assembly the active sensor areas toform a panoramic image and store data that determines image data fromthe active sensor area in a memory such as a ROM that is part of thecamera that will generate the panoramic image.

The steps to find such active areas and to set and align these areas inimage sensors are not trivial steps. It has to be done with optimalprecision at the right time and the result has to be storedappropriately as data and used by a processor and memory toappropriately combine image data from the active areas to create aregistered panoramic image. Because most image parameters of the imagesare pre-determined one does not have to deal with the commondifficulties of creating a registered image by finding appropriateoverlap and aligning the individual images to create a common registeredimage. The steps are illustrated in FIGS. 29-31. Assume in anillustrative example in FIG. 29 a lens assembly of at least two lenseswhich is able to generate at least two images of a scene by two imagesensors 2901 and 2902. The position and orientation of the sensors isexaggerated for demonstration purposes. One should realize that inessence there are two related images that have to be combined. Bothsensors generate an image of the same object which is image 2900 a bysensor 2901 and image 2900 b by sensor 2902. The intent is to define anactive area in sensor 2901 and in 2902 so that image data generated bythose active areas both have overlap on the images 2900 a and 2900 b andthat combining image data from the active areas will generate aregistered image.

To further show the difficulties of determining active areas of imagesensors, sensor 2902 has been provided with a rotation related to thehorizon if 2901 is aligned with the horizon. Sensor 2902 also in theexample has a vertical translation compared to 2901. Sensors 2901 and2902 of course have a horizontal translation compared to each other.These will all be addressed. It should also be clear that the sensorsmay have distortion based on other 3D geometric location properties ofthe sensors. For instance one may imagine that 2901 and 2902 are placedon the outside of a first and second cylinder. These and otherdistortions including lens distortions may be adequately corrected byknown software solutions implemented on processors that can eitherprocess photographic images in very short times or that can process andcorrect video images in real time. For instance Fujitsu® andSTMicroelectronics® provide image processors that can process videoimages at a rate of at least 12 frames per second.

FIG. 30 shows a display 3000 that can display the images as generated by2901 and 2902 during a calibration step. Such a display may be part of acomputer system that has two or more inputs to receive on each input theimage data as generated by an image sensor. A computer program can beapplied to process the images as generated by the sensors. In a firststep the two images from 2901 and 2903 are displayed. Both sensors maybe rectangular in shape and provide an n pixel by m pixel image. Forinstance a sensor may be a CCD or CMOS sensor that represents a 4:3aspect ration in a 1600 by 1200 pixel sensor with a total of 1.92megapixels and may have a dimension of 2.00 by 1.5 mm. It is pointed outthat there is a wide range of sensors available with different sizes andpixel densities. The example provided herein is for illustrated purposesonly.

The first striking effect is that the image of sensor 2902 in FIG. 30 ondisplay 3000 appears to be rotated. One is reminded that the sensor wasoriginally rotated. It is assumed that sensors pixels are read andstored as rectangular arrays, wherein each pixel can be identified byits location (line and column coordinate) and a value (for instance aRGB intensity value). It is assumed that pixels are displayed in aprogressive horizontal scan line by line. Though other known scanningmethods such as interlaced scanning are also contemplated. This meansthat the pixels as generated by sensor 2902 will be read and displayedin a progressive scan line by line and thus will be shown as arectangle, of which the content appeared to be rotated.

The computer is provided with a program that can perform a set of imageprocessing instructions either automatically or with human intervention.The images thereto are provided in a calibration scene with landmarks orobjects that can be used to align the images of 2901 and 2902. Onelandmark is a horizon or background that defines an image line whichwill appear as 3003 in 2901 and as 3004 in 2902 and can be used forrotational and vertical translation alignment of the two images. Thecalibration scene also contains at least one object that appears as 2900a in 2901 and as 2900 b in 2902 and can be used to fine tune thealignment. One may use the image of 2901 as the reference image andtranslate and rotate the image of 2902 to align. A computer program mayautomatically rotate the image of 2902 for instance around center ofgravity 2905 to align 3003 with 3004 or make them at least parallel.Two-dimensional image rotation even in real time is well known. Forinstance U.S. Pat. No. 6,801,674 to Turney and issued on Oct. 5, 2004and which is incorporated by reference in its entirety disclosesreal-time image rotation of images. It is also noted that on forinstance a camera phone a display has a much lower resolution than theresolution capabilities of a sensor. Accordingly, while the shownrotational of 30 degrees or larger misalignment may noticeable even atlow resolutions, a misalignment lower than 0.5 degrees or 0.25 degreeswhich falls within rotational alignment manufacturing capabilities ofthe lens/sensor assembly unit may not be noticeable on a low resolutiondisplay and may not require computational potentially time consumingactivities such as resampling. Accordingly, rotational alignment of 2 ormore still images and video images in a calibration situation is fullyenabled.

In a next step the image of 2902 may be vertically translated so that3003 and 3004 become completely aligned. These steps may be performedautomatically as known in the art of image registration or manually. Formanual alignment a user interface with icon 3005 may be provided on thedisplay, wherein the user interface provided by the icon controlsinstructions on the computer as is known in the art of user interfaces.Clicking on the ends of the arrows in interface icon 3005 may move theimage of 2902 either up, down, left, right, or clockwise turn orcounter-clockwise turn the image related to its center of gravity. Otherpoints of transformation are possible and are contemplated.

FIG. 31 shows display 3000 with the images of 2901 and 2902 at leastrotationally aligned. Additional user interface icons are also shown.Clicking on interface icon 3103 makes panoramic image frame 3102 appear.Image frame 3102 is the frame of the panoramic image as it appears on adisplay of the panoramic camera assembly with a display. It thusdetermines the size of the final image. One may click on the arrow headsof interface 3103 icon to translate the panoramic frame horizontally andvertically. One can clearly see that the images of 2901 and 2902 are notyet vertically and horizontally aligned. One may have the computer alignthe images by using known stitching or alignment software. One may alsouse the interface icon 3005 as described above to manually align or tofine tune an automatic alignment. One may thereto use the user interfacewith icon 3105 to zoom in on a specific part of the image up to pixellevel. One may then zoom out again after satisfactory alignment.

One may use the display 3000 in one of at least two modes. The firstmode is the transparent mode and the second is the opaque mode. In thetransparent mode both images generated by 2901 and 2902 are shown at thesame time, also in the overlap region. The computer may determine anoverlap region in display and reduce the intensity of the displayedpixels in overlap so the display does not become saturated. In this modeone may find a position of good alignment. A user interface icon 3104controls a program related to a merge line 3101. Clicking on the iconprovides a cursor on the combined image in the form. One may drag saidcursor to a selected place and two actions take place: a merge line 3101appears and the images go into opaque mode wherein there is one opaqueimage area left of the merge line 3101 and another opaque merge area tothe right of the merge line. The combined opaque messages now show theregistered image. One may move the merge line, or rotate it as shown as3110 by clicking for instance on the arrow heads of interface icon 3104.One may make the tool inactive when the merge line 3101 at any stagedoes not include sensor image area of 2901 and 2902 within frame 3102.The moving of the merge line allows searching for overlap areas thatprovide for instance the least amount of distortion.

Once one is satisfied with the resulting display result of the panoramicregistered image as for instance shown in FIG. 32 one may fix the resultby activating interface icon 3106. FIG. 33 shows that the active areasare fixed. The computer program may determine and store the coordinatesof the corners of the respective active areas relative to for instancethe corner coordinates of the sensor arrays 2901 and 2902 in a memory.Assume that 2901 and 2902 are both 1600 by 1200 pixel arrays, withcorner coordinates (0,0), (0,1600), (1200,0) and (1200,1600). Sensor2901 is the reference, and the active area has corner coordinates(x11,y11), (x11,y12), (x21,y11), (x21,y12). Sensor 2902 is regarded asthe rotated one. The relevant coordinates for the active area are(x21,y21), (x22,y22), (x23,y23) and (x24,y24). This is shown in diagramin FIG. 34. When there is significant rotation in 2902 compared to 2901one has to cut image 3402 associated with the active area of 2902 out ofthe image and rotate (including resampling if required) the cutout tocreate a rectangular image which can be combined with the image 3401generated by the active area of 2901 so that both images may be combinedinto a registered panoramic image. One way to combine the data is tocreate scanlines formed by combining corresponding lines of image 3401and rotated image 3402 into a single line which then forms a scanlinefor the registered panoramic image.

One may form a scanline by for instance scanning data of line 1 of image3401 and line 1 of rotated image 3402 to a display. In such a case theregistered panoramic image is formed on the display. One may alsocombine the corresponding scanlines of 3401 and 3402 to be stored asdata representing combined scanlines. In such an embodiment theregistered panoramic image exist as data of a complete image and may beprocessed as such, for instance for image segmentation.

FIG. 35 shows in diagram one embodiment of creating a display displayinga registered panoramic image from an assembly of at least 2 lens/imagesensor units. It should be clear that one may apply the above also to anassembly of 3 or more lens/sensor units. For three such units if onealigns those in one line, it is preferred to apply the middle unit asthe reference unit and use the outside units to determine rotation. FIG.35 illustrates 2 lens/sensor units with sensors 2901 and 2902. During acalibration step as described above generates data determiningcoordinates of active areas. That data is provided on an input 3501 tobe stored in a device 3502 which comprises at least memory and mayinclude a processor.

During operation of the lens/sensor assembly image data from 2901 isprovided to a processor 3503 and image data from sensor 2902 is providedto a processor 3504. Processors 3503 and 3504 may also be one processorwhich is operated in time share mode. Processors 3503 and 3504 areprovided by 3502 with data or instruction which part of the datagenerated by the sensors is to be considered active area image data.Before processing image data, the image data as generated by the sensorsmay be temporarily or long term stored in a buffer or memory beforebeing sent to their respective processors.

The processed image data, now representing only active area image data,of which the data of 2902 is rotated if required may be stored in memoryor buffers 3505 and 3506. The data in these buffers may be combined andfurther processed by a processor 3507 to be displayed as a registeredpanoramic image on a display 3508. It is to be understood that one mayfurther store at each stage in a memory or buffer the processed data,preferably as a complete frame of an image.

The system as shown in FIG. 35 may work under a clock signal provided on3509.

It is pointed out that in the example as shown in FIG. 34 the selectedactive sensor areas are rectangular. This is not required as one mayrotate the merge line. Some of the illustrative examples are providedfor a lens/sensor assembly of 2 lenses and for 3 or more lenses whereinthe lenses each have an identical and fixed focal length. This enables arelatively inexpensive multi-lens camera that can generate a goodquality registered panoramic image in a point-and-click manner, which isenabled by a simple calibration process of which the results can bebeneficially re-used during operation. It should be clear that one maycombine the details of the calibration method and apparatus of the fixedfocal length lens with the earlier provided methods and apparatus of thevariable focal length setting using a focus mechanism as also describedherein.

The method and apparatus as provided herein allows for generation ofregistered panoramic images which may be still images or video images ona display. The display may be a small size display on the camera with amuch smaller number of pixels than generated by the sensors. It wasalready shown that one may downsample the image for display. In afurther embodiment the data represented the complete high pixel countpanoramic images as generated by the camera may be provided on an outputto the outside world. The image data may be stored or processed togenerate images that may be displayed on a high pixel density display,or on a larger display with either low or high pixel density or it maybe printed on photographic paper. Sharing of images depends heavily onstandards and standard formats. The most popular image format is therelative 4:3 aspect ratio. Many displays have such an aspect ratio.Other display ratios are also possible. One may resize images to fit astandard 4:3 aspect ratio to other aspect ratios. In general that maylead to loss of image area or to the occurrence of non-image areas suchas the known letter-box format in video display of wide-screen videos.By nature of the panoramic image with a limited number of sensors onetends to create an image which has the same height as a standard imagebut is stitched with other images to provide a broader view, and perhapsnot a higher view. One may create a “higher view angle” as shown in FIG.5 by adding lens/sensor not only in one dimension but also in a seconddimension.

It is contemplated that while a camera may have the capabilities torecord, create, display and output wide view registered panoramic imagesa user may desire to share images taken in panoramic mode with a device(such as a camera phone of another user) that does not have panoramicimage display capabilities. The user of a panoramic camera may want tobe able to select the format in which he transmits a panoramic image.This is illustrated in FIG. 36. The blocks 3600, 3601, 3602 and 3603represent relative image sizes. The block 3600 represents the standard4:3 aspect ratio image size. Block 3601 represents a registeredpanoramic image which fits substantially the display on the camera. Ifone prefers to send an image that substantially fits a 4:3 aspect ratiodisplay or photograph one may send an image determined by the pixelsinside 3600. Clearly, image data will be lost. But the image that fits3600 may not need resampling and may be able to be displayed directly ona standard 4:3 display or photograph. One may also resize a panoramicimage 3601 in a size 3602, which may require resampling. However, such aresized image can be directly displayed on a 4:3 display with non-imagebanding. In a further embodiment one may create a registered panoramicimage 3603 based on registered vertical image data. One may stilldisplay such an image on a display with a size conforming with 3601,thus losing image size. However, it is also fairly easy to resize image3603 into 3600 to be displayed on a standard 4:3 image display. One mayimplement the resizing methods on the camera and provide a user with auser interface option to select the preferred resizing or maintain thegenerated panoramic image size in an embodiment of the presentinvention.

The Balance Between Mechanical and Computational Cost

It was shown above how one can create a registered panoramic image in amultiple lens/sensor assembly by applying first a calibration stepassociating active image sensor area with to be merged image data. Thisensures that a stored setting can be used rather than determining such asetting each time a panoramic image has to be generated. This by itselfmay significantly reduce the computational cost and time in generating apanoramic image. It is believed that the cost of processing and of imagesensing will go down and the speed of processing will increase, whilethe cost of labor and mechanical devices will remain relatively high.Many different configurations and embodiments to implement methods andapparatus provided herein are contemplated and the herein providedembodiments are provided as illustrative examples. A preferredembodiment is one that provides an acceptable quality registeredpanoramic image in the fastest way and a panoramic video image inreal-time at the lowest cost. For instance one may use known homographysuch as disclosed for instance in U.S. Pat. No. 7,460,730 to Pal et al.issued on Dec. 2, 2008 which is incorporated herein by referenceimplemented on a very high-end video processor to generate real-time HDpanoramic video. Presently, requirements like that would prevent acamera phone with panoramic image capabilities from becoming amass-produced article. This section is focused on embodiments that wouldfurther enable certain aspects of the present invention at a price,effort and quality.

One may provide additional features and improvements of the quality ofthe generated panoramic image in yet additional embodiment.

One issue to be addressed is the rotational alignment of at least twoimages generated by two image sensors. The screenshot in diagram of FIG.31 illustrates rotational alignment by way of a processor. Rotationalalignment may require, depending on the image size, pixel density andangle of rotation a significant amount of processing. A very smallrotation may be virtually undistinguishable on a small display, so noadjustment may be required. However, a full display of not rotationallyaligned images even at a small angle of less than for instance 0.5degrees may be clearly visible on a high definition full display. Asmall rotational angle may only require a reading of pixels under suchangle and may not require resampling of the rotated image. A rotation ofalmost 30 degrees as used in the illustrative example of FIG. 31 isclearly not realistic and completely preventable if so desired. Itshould be clear that rotational alignment is a more involved processthan translational alignment. Translational alignment is essentially anoffset in horizontal and/or vertical memory address of a stored imageand is easy to implement.

Rotational alignment is more difficult because of the mapping of animage created from sensor elements in one rectangular array into pixelsin a rotated rectangular display array. A sensor array providesconsecutive or interlaced scan lines of pixel signals which isessentially a series of sampled signals which are provided to anAnalog/Digital converter which may temporarily be stored in a buffer asraw data. The raw data is processed by a processor for a process that isknown as de-mosaicing. Pixels in for instance a CMOS sensor arecomprised of several components that have to be processed to create asmooth image. The raw data if not processed may also show artifacts suchas aliasing, which affects the quality of an image. By processing steps,which may include smoothing, filtering, interpolation and other knownsteps the raw image data is processed into displayable image data whichmay be displayed on a display or printed on photographic paper.De-mosaicing is well known and is described for instance in U.S. Pat.No. 6,625,305 to Keren, issued on Sep. 23, 2003, which is incorporatedherein by reference. One may at the time of de-mosaicing also resize theimage so that the reference image and the to be rotated image have thesame size at their merge line. De-mosaicing and resizing of raw data isdescribed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,989,862 to Baharav et al. and issued onJan. 24, 2006 which is incorporated herein by reference.

The problem related to rotated images is that the de-mosaicing isperformed with relation to certain rectangular axis determined by theaxis of display. Rotating a de-mosaiced image means a further processingof already processed display pixels. This may lead to a deterioration ofthe rotated image. One may for instance perform with an image processingapplication rotation over an angle of an image for instance in JPEGformat and derotate the rotated image over the exact angle. One may ingeneral notice a deterioration of the final image. It would thus bebeneficial to rotate the image using the raw data and use the rotatedraw data as the rectangular reference system for demosaicing anddisplay. This also means that no relative expensive and/or timeconsuming image rotation of demosaiced image data has to be applied.

Image rotation of raw image data can be achieved by storing the raw dataalong rotated scan lines, but storing the data in a rectangularreference frame. In general using raw data along rotated scanlines willcreate image distortion. This is because a scanline along for instance30 degrees will capture the same number of pixels but over a longerdistance. This effect is negligible over small angles of 1 degree orless. For instance the sine and tangent of 1 degree are both 0.0175.That means that over a long side of a thousand pixels a short side at 1degree has about 17 pixels without significant increase of the length ofthe scanline. Such an increase is less than one pixel and thus hasnegligible distortion.

This scanning along rotated scanlines is illustrated in FIG. 39. Oneshould keep in mind that the diagram of FIG. 39 is exaggerated and thatthe actual scanlines of the sensor will be under an angle that can bemuch smaller. Also the number of pixels in a line will be much larger,often 1000 or more pixels per line. In FIG. 39 3900 is the sensors withrectangular arranged sensors elements in Rows 1-6. It is to beunderstood that a real sensor has millions of pixels. The new scanlines,rather than along the horizontal lines will be along parallel scanlines39-1, 3902, 3903 and so on. There are different ways to define ascanline. In this example a scanline crosses 4 parallel horizontal pixellines of the sensor. A horizontal line has 32 pixels. One scanlinescheme would be for the first rotated scanline: use 8 pixels from thebeginning of the horizontal line Row 1 where the scanline begins. Atpoint 3904 use the 8 pixels of the next horizontal line Row 2 as pixelsof the scanline; at point 3905 use the 8 pixels of the next horizontalline Row 3 as pixels of the scanline; and at point 3906 use the 8 pixelsof the next horizontal line Row 4 as pixels of the scanline. As a nextstep use Row 5 as the beginning of the new rotated scanline, and use theprevious steps with of course all horizontal rows moved one position.One can easily see how this also creates scanlines 3902 and 3903 andadditional scanlines. One may define the starting points of thescanlines to create the appropriate merge line to merge the referenceimage and the rotated image.

How to implement the rotated scanlines is further illustrated in FIGS.37 and 38. FIG. 37 illustrates a known addressing method and apparatusfor reading an image sensor. It is for instance described in U.S. Pat.No. 6,900,837 to Muramatsu et al. issued on May 31, 2005, which isincorporate herein by reference. FIG. 37 is equivalent to FIG. 2 inMuramatsu. It shows a sensor 3700 with identified a row of sensorelements 3701. Though each pixel is shown as 1 block it may contain thestandard square of 2 green elements, a red element and a blue element.It may also contain layers of photosensitive elements, or any otherstructure of known photosensitive elements. The sensor can be read byactivating a horizontal address decoder (for the lines) and a verticaladdress decoder for the vertical lines. In general the decoder mayprovide a signal to the horizontal line selection shift register, whichwill activate the line to be read. Once a line is activated a series ofsignals will generate a series of consecutive vertical addresses whichallows activation by the vertical line selection shift register ofconsecutive vertical lines with as result a reading of consecutivepixels in a horizontal line. The read pixels are provided on an output3707. Further identified are a clock circuit 3705 which will assist intiming of reading the pixels and inputs 3704. In Muramatsu, at least oneinput of 3704 is reserved for selecting an addressing mode. Muramatsuand other disclosures on random addressing maintain a horizontalscanning mode. The random character of scanning is usually expressed inrandom lines or a special sub-array of the sensor array 3700.

FIG. 38 illustrates an aspect of the present invention to scan thesensor elements under a small angle, preferably smaller than 1 degree,but certainly smaller than 5 degrees. Under small angles the distortionin an image may be considered minimal and not or barely noticeable. Thestructure of the sensor 3800 is similar to 3700. For illustrativepurposes three horizontal lines of sensor elements are shown. The readscanlines are provided on an output 3807. The sensor has also horizontaland vertical address decoders and related line selection shiftregisters. The difference is a control circuit 3805 which may contain aclock circuit, which distributes appropriately the addresses to thehorizontal and vertical address decoders. The addresses will begenerated in such a way that the sensor elements are read according to aslanted line 3801 and not in a strictly horizontal or vertical line.This slanted reading was already explained above.

One should keep in mind that the angle of scanning is not yet determinedand should be programmed by a signal on an input 3802. Such a signal mayindicate the angle of scanning. A related signal may be generated thatdetermines the angle of the merge line. For instance based on signalsprovided on 3802 one may provide to a processor 3803 sufficient data todetermine the angle of scanning and the begin point of scanning for eachslanted line which determines the scan area 3402 in FIG. 34 in whichcase one may want to scan from right to left. The coordinates of thescan area and the scan angle may be stored in a memory 3809, which maythen provide data to the controller to generate the appropriate scanlineelement addresses.

FIG. 40 further illustrates the rotation by providing an angle to thescanlines. The rotated image sensor as shown in FIG. 34 can be scannedwith parallel scanlines under a predefined angle which is determinedduring a calibration step. The scanned lines will create image data in arectangular axis system.

One may achieve the same as was shown above with a raw image dataaddress transformation which is illustrated in FIG. 41. One may operatea normal rectangular sensor 4100 with horizontal scanlines. Duringcalibration the rotation angle is determined as well as the coordinatesof the active sensor area. One may assume that the rotation angle issmall, at least smaller than 5 degrees and preferred equal to or smallerthan 1 degree. The sensor 4100 is read with horizontal scanlines and theraw sensor data is stored in a buffer 4103. The required transformationto align the rotated image with the reference image is determined duringcalibration and is stored in processor/memory 4101 which controlsaddress decoder 4102 to buffer 4103. The processor/memory 4101 assuresthat the buffer is read in such a way that the read data can be storedin a memory 4104 in a rectangular system so that image data read from4104 and combined with image data from the reference sensor will createa panoramic image. Demosaicing of sensor data takes place preferablyafter the rotation step.

Combined images may still require some edge smoothing and adjustment fordifferent light conditions. Smoothing may be required for a small stripof connecting pixel areas from at least two different images sensors.The required amount of processing is limited compared to a situationwherein no calibration has happened.

One may also want to consider lens distortion as described above andadjusting the distortion by a computer program on an image processor inthe camera. In a further embodiment one may adjust the lens distortionby means of a lens distortion adjustment processing. Adjustment fordistortion, not only lens distortion such as barrel and pincushiondistortion but also projection distortion such as keystoning may beadjusted with instructions in an image processor.

The calibration for alignment of two sensor images may also be donemanually or automatically. For instance one may connect a lens/sensorassembly with at least two lens/sensor units wherein the lens/sensor areput in a fixed position to a large display, while the lenses are trainedon a scene having a panoramic field of features such as lines that crossthe field-of-view of the individual lenses. One may provide a rotationto the scanlines and horizontal and vertical translation of the rotatedimage until reference image and rotated image are perfectly aligned.Confirmation of alignment and merge line cause a computer program todetermine the transformation required to get images aligned and tocalculate the coordinates of the active sensor areas. This is basicgeometry and trigonometry and can be easily programmed. In a furtherembodiment one may also generate instruction for reading raw scanneddata in a buffer as illustrated in FIG. 41 into a rectangular addressingsystem and store the scanned image data in such as manner that readingthe stored data in the rectangular address system enables an image thataligns with the reference image.

One requirement is that image sensors are not rotated more than 1 to 5degrees compared to a reference sensor. One may also try to alignsensors mechanically. In one embodiment one may have a mechanicaladjustment mechanism in the camera connected to at least one sensor unitto be rotated. In a further embodiment one may align the sensor unitsrotationally within the size of a pixel, which may be about 2 micron. Atsuch a scale a rotation if still present may be treated as atranslation. In one embodiment one may create a lens/sensor assembly forinstance of 3 lens/sensor units (though 2 or more than 3 is alsopossible) wherein one uses a prefabricated lens/sensor carrier 4200 asshown in cross section FIG. 42. The carrier already has the correctfixation planes for the lens/sensor units. The lens/sensor units haverotational and translational freedom in the plane of fixation. In afurther embodiment lens/sensor units 4201, 4202 and 4203 have to be atleast rotationally aligned within preferably within one pixel or at most5 pixels. Lens/sensor unit 4202 may be considered the reference unit.One may provide the units 4201 and 4203 with shaft 4204 and gear 4206and shaft 4205 and gear 4207 respectively. The shaft may be fixed to thelens/sensor unit which with the shaft goes through 4200 with at the enda drive gear which may connect to a gear of a high precision drive 4300.One may fixate 4201 and 4203 against the surface of 4200 in such a waythat they can rotate about the shafts. One may drive the gear 4206 and4206 with a rotation mechanism 4300, for instance driven by a steppingmotor 4301 with a gearbox with an accuracy of 0.5 micron as shown indiagram as 4300 in FIG. 43. One may provide the Such gearboxes are knownand are available for instance from OptoSigma Corporation in Santa Ana,Calif. One may provide the gearbox having a driving stepping motor witha receiving part 4302, which can receive gear 4206 or 4207 in 4303.These devices are known to one of ordinary skill and are not shownherein in detail.

High precision rotation mechanisms such as optical mounts with anaccuracy smaller than 1 arcmin are well known, and do not requirefurther explanation. High precision fixation of components with asub-micron accuracy are also known. For instance relatively highstrength bonding systems for micro-electronic, optical and print-nozzlefixation are well known. These bonding systems require high-precisionbonding with very low temperature dependency in submicron deviceposition and fixation. Such an ultra precision and reliable bondingmethod is provided in U.S. Pat. No. 6,284,085 to Gwo issued on Sep. 4,2001, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

Based on a scene recorded by the sensors in the lens/sensor assemblydisplayed on a sufficiently large display one may achieve accuraterotational alignment of the sensors. Once rotational alignment isachieved one may permanently fixate the lens/sensor unit to the carrier4200. Very accurate fixation techniques using specialized adhesives areknown, which allows for accurate fixation with no significanttemperature dependent expansion or contraction. Similar techniques forinstance are used in precise alignment and fixation of small opticalfibers. Further calibration to achieve a panoramic image may include ahorizontal/vertical translation and a determination of a merge line bymeans of processing of image data. One may also achieve translationalmechanical alignment with the mechanical tools described herein.

In a further embodiment one may include such a rotational mechanism inan operational camera, so that alignment can take place in the camera bya user or automatically by an alignment program in the camera. In thatcase a search area may be defined and a registration program may drivethe mechanism iteratively until optimal registration is achieved.

FIG. 44 illustrates the embodiment of alignment of lens/sensors units.It shown three lens/sensor units 4401, 4402 and 4403, which may bepositioned in three different planes. The unit 4402 is in this case thereference unit which may be fixated by at least two fixation points 4406and 4407. The units 4401 and 4403 have to be at least rotationallyaligned and if possible also translationally aligned to 4402. One mayposition 4401 and 4403 rotationally and translationally at points 4405and 4408 so that fixation points 4405, 4406, 4407 and 4408 all lie on aplane perpendicular on 4401, 4402 and 4403 indicated by line 4404.Mechanisms 4409 and 4410 may be used to align 4401 and 4403 with 4402respectively. These mechanisms may be used only during calibration andfixation of the units. They may also be part of the camera and allow theunits 4401 and 4403 to remain movable with 4409 and 4410.

One may thus conclude that the herein provided embodiments create two ormore aligned lens/sensor units which are substantially rotationallyaligned. Substantially rotationally aligned means that it appears that aregistered image of one object with image overlap or two objects in twoaligned images do not display noticeable rotational distortion by thecommon user due to rotational misalignment. One may quantify this by forinstance by a measure of image misalignment of two images in display (ordownsampled) format in one embodiment that is less than one downsampledpixel, but preferably less than half a downsampled pixel in a secondembodiment, or less or about than a tenth downsampled pixel in a thirdembodiment. For instance a camera may have sensors with a horizontalline having at least 1000 pixels while a display in a camera may have100 display pixels on a horizontal line. In terms of the original sensorformat, the rotational misalignment is less than or about 1 degreebetween horizontal lines of two sensors in one embodiment. In a furtherembodiment the rotational misalignment is less or about 1 of a degree.In yet a further embodiment the rotational misalignment is less than orabout 1 arcmin. Because one may align within or better than at least 1micron, one may in a further embodiment define rotational misalignmentas being about or less than 2 pixels on a merge line. In yet a furtherembodiment, one may define rotational misalignment as being about orless than 1 pixel. In yet a further embodiment, one may definerotational misalignment as being about or less than 1 micron. At verysmall angles, the rotational misalignment on the merge line is almostindistinguishable from a translational misalignment.

Aspects of the present invention enable a camera, which may beincorporated in a mobile computing device or a mobile camera, or amobile phone that allows a user to generate a registered panoramicphotograph or video image without registration processing or withoutsubstantial registration processing that can be viewed on a display onthe camera. If any registration processing needs to be done, it may belimited to an area that is not wider than 2, or 4 or 10 pixels. There isthus no requirement for extensive searching for an overlap of images. Infact, if any further registration processing is required it is alreadydetermined in the calibration step if a mismatch does occur andpredetermined adjustment may already be programmed. This may includetransition line smoothing. Lighting difference in sensors may bedetected, which may not be considered registration errors, but stillneed to be addressed. One may address these differences in a displayalgorithm that makes sure that the displayed pixels, at least in theoverlap area are equalized. One may also address these differencesduring processing of the raw image data. It is again pointed out thatalgorithms for smoothing and fine alignment of images are well known andare for instance available in the well known Adobe® Photoshop®application, or in image processing application such as provided byMatlab® of The Mathworks™.

As was shown above one may create lens/sensor assemblies wherein thesensors are rotationally positioned within any desired misalignmentangle. If so desired one may rotationally align two sensors with amisalignment error of 0 degrees. Or practically horizontal lines ofpixels in a first sensor are parallel with the horizontal lines ofpixels in a second sensor. The vertical translation of lines of pixelsbetween two sensors cannot be more than half the height of a pixel pluspitch between pixel lines. One may adjust mechanically for any mismatch,which will be in the order of a micron. However, such a verticalmisalignment will generally not be visible on a display. The rotationalalignment can thus be in the order of arcmins and even in the order ofarcsecs if one so desires. As was shown above, one may tolerate acertain amount of rotational misalignment.

For instance the sine of 10 degrees is 0.1736 and the tangent is 0.1763.That means there is a distortion of about 1.5% over equal number ofpixels over a horizontal scanline or an angled scanline of 10 degrees.At 15 degrees the distortion is about 3.5%. That distortion is less than0.4% at 1 degree, and much less than that at 1 degree. Clearly, therotary misalignment of 0 degree is preferable as one in that case justscans, stores and reads data in horizontal lines. Small angles will notsignificantly deteriorate the quality of the image, one only has to makesure that data is stored and read along the correct scanlines to bepresented in a correct horizontal scheme. One can see that at horizontallines of 1000 pixels or more even a small angle will cause a verticaljump of several pixels. That is why one needs to determine the activesensor area and store and read the image data accurately. One may storethe coordinates of the active sensor area. It has also been shown thatthe coordinates of an active sensor area are related with rotationalalignment and to an angle of rotational misalignment and one may treatit as negligible.

By accurately defining during a calibration the active sensor areas, anda merge line required processing and adjustments steps have been greatlyreduced. Thus a panoramic camera having at least two lens/sensor unitswith fixed focal distance or with adjustable focal distance has beenenabled. Panoramic images can be displayed on a display of the camera.They can be reformatted in a standard format. Panoramic images can alsobe stored on the camera for later display and/or transmission to anotherdevice.

The coordinates of active sensor areas can be used in several ways andin different embodiments. They define a merge line of two images. Forinstance, one has a first active image sensor area with a straightborder line defined by coordinates (x_(sensor1 right1), y_(sensor1) _(—)_(right1)) and (x_(sensor1) _(—) _(right2), y_(sensor1) _(—) _(right2))and a second image sensor area with a border line defined by coordinates(x_(sensor2) _(—) _(right1), y_(sensor2) _(—) _(right1)) and(x_(sensor2) _(—) _(right2), y_(sensor2) _(—) _(right2)). Assume thatthere is no rotation misalignment or the rotation misalignment is sosmall that the misalignment angle may be considered to be 0 degrees. Thetranslational off-set between two images is reflected in thecoordinates. One may then directly merge the image data at thecoordinates to create a feature wise registered image. No searching forregistration is required. The size of the registered image is of coursedetermined by the other coordinates of the active sensor area. One mayadjust intensity of image data for lighting differences. One may performthis adjustment as part of the demosaicing. One may perform demosaicingafter creating horizontal pixel lines by merging pixels lines from theindividual images or by demosaicing before merging.

Because the lines through (x_(sensor1) _(—) _(right1), y_(sensor1) _(—)_(right1)) and (x_(sensor1) _(—) _(right2), y_(sensor1) _(—) _(right2))and through (x_(sensor2) _(—) _(right1), y_(sensor2) _(—) _(right1)) and(x_(sensor2) _(—) _(right2), y_(sensor2) _(—) _(right2)) are the samemerge line one may determine a required rotation of the second linerelated to the first line, keeping in mind that the first line may notbe perpendicular to a horizontal line. One may thus determine arotational misalignment angle of the line through (x_(sensor2) _(—)_(right1), y_(sensor2) _(—) _(right1)) and (x_(sensor2) _(—) _(right2),y_(sensor2) _(—) _(right2)), which may be reflected in determining anangle of a scanline or a transformation of data-addresses to store theimage data of the second active sensor area in such a way that the imagedata of the first active image sensor and the transformed or scanneddata of the second active image sensor area can be merged to create adirectly registered panoramic image without having to search for a mergeline.

As discussed above, one may allow a limited search to fine-tuneregistration. Accordingly, one may say that image data generated by afirst active sensor area and image data generated by a second activesensor area are merged to create directly or substantially directlywithin a defined range of pixel search a registered panoramic image.This does not exclude additional image processing for instance for edgesmoothing or intensity equalization or distortion correction. Certainly,for display of the registered image on the camera display no or almostno further registration is required if the pixel density of the imagesensors is greater than the pixel density of the camera display.

One may for instance determine an angle of rotational misalignmentbetween two sensors from the required angle of rotation to align lines3003 and 3004, which are in real life part of the same line in FIG. 30.One may at least during calibration apply optical or computationalcorrection of image distortion to optimize and fine tune the alignment.Displaying the images on a large high pixel density display may increasethe accuracy of alignment up to the pixel level.

A controller thus is provided during a calibration step with datarelated to the active sensor areas of the sensors involved forgenerating a registered panoramic image, which may include area cornersand coordinates, merge line scanline angle and rotation misalignmentangle. This data is stored in a memory, which may also include data thatdetermines the data address transformation required to put angled imagedata into a rectangular frame. During operation the controller appliesthe stored data related to active sensor area to use image data fromactive sensor areas that can be merged with no or limited processing tocreate a registered panoramic image. One may apply no or minimal imageprocessing to do for instance edge smoothing or adjustment over a smallrange of pixels. One may say that a registered panoramic image iscreated from image data generated limited substantially to image datafrom the active sensor area. One may use some image data outside theactive areas to compare intensities for instance. Accordingly, aprocessor applies data gathered during a calibration step determining anactive sensor area of a first sensor and data determining an activesensor area of a second sensor to generate a registered panoramic image.A third or even more sensors may also be applied using the above steps.One may use fixed focal length lenses, requiring only one set of activesensor areas. One may also use variable focal lengths lenses which mayrequire for a series of lens settings a determination of active sensorareas. One may also apply lenses with zoom capacity, which may requireyet other sets of active sensor areas to be determined.

Once the active areas of sensors are determined, registration issubstantially reading data or transformed data and combining the data,with limited processing. One may thus apply the apparatus and methodsprovided herein to photographic still images as well as to video data.

In a calibration step the active sensor area and scan area is determinedand the scan angle. Data related to the active scan area and the scanangle will address the required rotation that will align imagesgenerated by two image sensors. Data that will cause the proper slantedscanlines to be created is stored in a memory and will be used in anoperational phase to create the rotationally aligned images. The rawimage data from the scanning process can then be provided to ademosaicing process step.

By adjusting the scanning angle, which is a matter of generating ascanning program or pixel addresses then prevents the probably moreexpensive step of mechanically aligning sensors for rotationalalignment. Because the scan angle has to be relatively small one mayhave to position two lens/sensor units in a rotational deviation that isnot larger than preferably 1 degree, followed by a programming of ascanning angle.

One may form the apparatus as provided herein by using imaging units,wherein an imaging unit or module is a housing which contains at least alens and a sensor. In a further embodiment, the imaging module may havememory or buffer to store image data and an addressing decoder todetermine the reading or scanlines of the sensor. The module also hasinputs for timing control and outputs for providing the image data tothe outside world. A module may also have a focus mechanism, a shutterand/or zoom mechanism.

One may create a highly repeatable manufacturing process, wherein afterdetermining once the angle of rotational misalignment error, which maybe zero degrees in one embodiment, all cameras manufactured in a similarmanner do not require further determination of the alignment error. Theembodiment of any camera manufactured thereafter still depends on theinitial determination of the initial misalignment error as determinedduring a calibration.

While there have been shown, described and pointed out, fundamentalnovel features of the invention as applied to preferred embodimentsthereof, it will be understood that various omissions and substitutionsand changes in the form and details of the methods, systems and devicesillustrated and in its operation may be made by those skilled in the artwithout departing from the spirit of the invention. It is the intention,therefore, to be limited only as indicated by the scope of the claims ortheir equivalents appended hereto.

The following patent application, including the specification, claimsand drawings, is hereby incorporated by reference herein, as if it werefully set forth herein: U.S. Non-Provisional patent application Ser. No.12/435,624 filed on May 5, 2009 and U.S. Non-Provisional patentapplication Ser. No. 12/436,874 filed on May 7, 2009.

1. A camera, comprising: a first and a second imaging unit, each imagingunit including a lens and a sensor; the sensors of the first and secondimaging unit being rotationally aligned in the camera with amisalignment angle that is determined during a calibration; and acontroller for applying data generated during the calibrationdetermining an active sensor area of the sensor of the first imagingunit and an active area of the sensor of the second imaging unit togenerate a registered panoramic image.
 2. The camera as claimed in claim1, further comprising a display for displaying the registered panoramicimage.
 3. The camera as claimed in claim 2, wherein a pixel density ofthe sensor in the first imaging unit is greater than the pixel densityof the display.
 4. The camera as claimed in claim 1, wherein theregistered panoramic image is a video image.
 5. The camera as claimed inclaim 1, wherein the misalignment angle is negligible and wherein imagedata associated with pixels on a horizontal line of the sensor of thefirst imaging unit is combined with image data associated with pixels ona horizontal line of the sensor of the second imaging unit to generate ahorizontal line of pixels in the registered panoramic image.
 6. Thecamera as claimed in claim 1, wherein the misalignment angle is about orsmaller than 5 degrees.
 7. The camera as claimed in claim 1, wherein themisalignment angle is about or smaller than 1 degree.
 8. The camera asclaimed in claim 1, wherein the misalignment angle is about or smallerthan 0.5 degree.
 9. The camera as claimed in claim 1, wherein themisalignment angle is about or smaller than 1 arcmin.
 10. The camera asclaimed in claim 1, wherein the misalignment angle is applied todetermine a scanline angle for the sensor of the second imaging unit.11. The camera as claimed in claim 1, wherein the misalignment error isapplied to generate an address transformation to store image data of theactive sensor area of the sensor of the second imaging unit in arectangular addressing scheme.
 12. The camera as claimed in claim 1,wherein the camera is comprised in a mobile computing device.
 13. Thecamera as claimed in claim 1, wherein the camera is comprised in amobile phone.
 14. The camera as claimed in claim 1, further comprisingat least a third imaging unit including a lens and a sensor.
 15. Thecamera as claimed in claim 1, wherein the lens of the first imaging unithas a fixed focal length.
 16. The camera as claimed in claim 1, whereinthe lens of the first imaging unit has a variable focal length.
 17. Thecamera as claimed in claim 1, wherein the lens of the first imaging unitis a zoom lens.
 18. The camera as claimed in claim 1, further comprisinga mechanism that can reduce the misalignment angle to a negligibleangle.
 19. A camera, comprising: a first and a second imaging unit, eachimaging unit including a lens and a sensor; and a controller forapplying data generated during a calibration determining an activesensor area of the sensor of the first imaging unit and an active areaof the sensor of the second imaging unit to generate a registeredpanoramic image during operation of the camera.
 20. The camera of claim19, wherein the camera is part of a mobile phone.